This may sound silly to all you chicken keepers out there...but i will be picking up my first chicks 1st week of April and had one curious thought,,,,I leave for work at 7am..and when it is very dark still in the morning..My coop will have electric in in..Is it ok to turn light on in am when its still dark out to feed and water chickens and to open door to their enclosed pen for day??before I leave for work..I imagine they are still roosting then right??
It's OK, IMO. You'll startle them awake but they'll get used to it. I'd probably put the light on one of those $10 timers and leave it on when I left, and set it to go off after daylight. Or just use a low light power saving bulb and leave it on til I got home from work. What I don't like to do is have a timed light turn off after dark, suddenly, because dusk means find your roost spot to them.
Mine wake up to a light on a timer every day because I'm using supplemental lighting for the winter. It's fine!
