Lights without electricity

[lsuphillier1]

Has anyone put lights on chickens where electricity was unavailable or inexpedient (battery-operated). Do you have any suggestions as to what to buy?

 

[baldie]

No, but I was wondering the same thing!! We have a bunch of those lights you press to turn on and off, we were thinking of trying them, I can't wait to see if anyone has tried this!!

 

[lsuphillier1]

Yea, but it would need to be something that you could connect a timer onto it.

 

[sunnychooks]

I bought one of those solar powered shed lights on ebay for about $40. I turn it on in the evening when I close the chickens up for the night. I know that the best thing to do is to add the light in the morning, but it's the best I could do and it seems to work. I turn it off in the morning so it can recharge during the day. It usually stays on for a couple of hours before it loses power.

 

[panner123]

Quote:
I would think you could add a battery to this unit, then it would last longer. I wish I had thought of those instead of running wire from here to there and back again. And I would have saved enough for a week in Reno, paying my dues.

 

[Akane]

I turn it off in the morning so it can recharge during the day.

You leave the light on all night? When do your chickens get to sleep? That's not healthy and will stress them out eventually. If it's for heat or a night light put a red bulb in so they can still sleep. If you are trying to increase light for eggs you really only need a few hours. You can go back and turn it off before you go to bed. The problem with adding light in the evening is the chickens might not get settled on the roosts before the light just shuts off for the night and since they can't see in the dark they panic. Sometimes they just sleep on the floor but sometimes they'll smash each other in the corner and risk killing the bottom ones. You have to make sure they are up on their roosts before turning the light out if you add light in the evening instead of the morning.​

 

[lsuphillier1]

6. No Spam. Spamming is posting the same thing several times. "Bumping" (posting to move a thread up on the forum list) and cross-posting (posting the same thread in several forums) are examples of spam.

Please somebody tell me there is a way to rig up a battery operated light to a timer.​

 

[pookiethebear]

Not exactly help in your situation but, Hubby ran 150 feet of extension cord from our house outside outlet to the coop and drilled a hole big enough to get the plug of a shop light through. He mounted the shop light in the coop pointing at the food and water. It was funny to see them last night. We used a plastic cutting board as the pop door and we do not have the window installed yet, so we could see the shadow of the birds running around the coop through the pop door transulance. It was kinda commical to see it lit up with light in the early evening.

They were cooped up all day long yesterday as it was way too cold and windy for them to be out in the run. They seemed to have a good time and ate/drank and was merry. I thought I even see them doing the chicken dance!!

 

[wegotchickens]

We got a solar charged light from Lowe's. It comes on at dark and lasts as long as the charge holds up, or dawn (whichever comes first). It puts out a pale blue light that isn't very bright. We weren't getting any eggs before we put the light in, and still aren't. But that's okay. We needed them to be less reluctant to sleep indoors and the light has definitely helped with that!

 

[sunnychooks]

Quote:
You leave the light on all night? When do your chickens get to sleep? That's not healthy and will stress them out eventually. If it's for heat or a night light put a red bulb in so they can still sleep. If you are trying to increase light for eggs you really only need a few hours. You can go back and turn it off before you go to bed. The problem with adding light in the evening is the chickens might not get settled on the roosts before the light just shuts off for the night and since they can't see in the dark they panic. Sometimes they just sleep on the floor but sometimes they'll smash each other in the corner and risk killing the bottom ones. You have to make sure they are up on their roosts before turning the light out if you add light in the evening instead of the morning.

No, it's not on all night. As I already posted, it loses power after a couple of hours and it goes off gradually. The next morning I turn the unit off so that it can recharge during the day.