North Carolina

[ramirezframing]

Question for you all:

For those that light and/or heat your coops in the winter, have you started yet? If not, when do you start? I would like to provide enough light to keep my chickens laying during the winter and some amount of heat. I have a red heat lamp that I used when they were babies that I can put in the coop.

I just checked the sunrise/sunset times and I'm getting 13 hours of light now... (I read somewhere that they need approx. 14 hours of light to lay.) My nighttime low temps are in the low 70's this week, but are forecast to be low 60's next week. Mine are right at the age where I would expect them to start laying soon, so I don't have any already laying to use as a guage.

So.. this may be a 2 part question really (with one part being the light hours and one part being the comfortable temperature)... but ideally the solution would be for me to put the red heat lamp out on a timer so that it comes on at night.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

I have never added light to mine. Most winters mine do stop laying, but the past 2 warm winters, I have gotten a few eggs (probably from the new layers). I know some people that light for egg production, but not for heat. For just light you would use a regular light, not a red light. I have read in a few places that when you light your birds over the winter, they lay out faster than birds that are not lighted over the winter. Chickens are like women, they are born with all the eggs they will ever lay. So the faster they lay them the shorter the laying life is of that bird. I guess this is why I have had 2 birds still laying eggs at 10 yrs old, all be it, it wasn't alot of eggs. Good luck with your choice and yes check out the thread "think its too cold for your chicken, think again".

 

[ramirezframing]

I recently bought a little goat at a flock swap and I was simply asking on a FB group, if anyone had any experience in keeping a pig and goats together.... I had stated that I wouldn't allow them to eat the same food but was wondering if I could find a universal food to feed. Also that the goats being pymgy would be kept on 100ft trolley lines so they could graze a more diverse area. WIth of course an area in barn for rainy days, nights and days when I am not able to be home. Someone popped up and told me how sad that was, saying they knew they should have bought her first and that I should never put a little baby goat in with a 40lbs big(which I had stated I wouldn't) and that she would easily be killed by something if she was on the runner because she is so tiny(which again I said I wouldn't do until she was bigger). They finished by saying that when I wanted to sell they would still be happy to have her! Talking to me like I bought her like a novelity pet! He knows nothing about my set up and the training I have been doing with my dogs to protect my land. I know he saw the words 'Trolley line' and assumed I was just gonna chain her out and leave her, but a trolley line is the only option I have as I can't fence in more than I have on only an acre of land!
I know I am more upset than I should be but it hurts when people assume especially since I would truly give my life for any one of my animals! I may not have much, but my animals are cared for and loved and never know hunger or abuse!

Sorry about this Wild. But you will learn over and over that some people are of the mind set that unless it's fat it aint healthy. These people are the ones that tend to slowly kill their animals because they make them too fat, which just like humans can kill or hurt the animals just like if the animal was not being taken care of properly.

 

[BHep]

As long as you have good ventilation, chickens DO NOT need heat! (And really-what would you do if the power goes out?)

Chickens are not warm blooded. They don't need additional heat.

We have never used supplemental heat or lighting. My chickens lay all winter so long as I up their protein.

There are numerous threads here on supplemental heat- one that's particularly good is something like, "Think it's too cold for your chickens? Think again." Or something like that.

Do them the favor and let them build up their natural fat layer. ....just my .02; ymmv.

X2



I will add that since I am up and out to the barn at 5:30AM... I do leave my lights on until daylight, then go out and shut them off.

 

[wildriverswolf90]

my little babies from Bhep growing up so cute!
sizzles

brabanter EE

smoothe frizzle ee(if i remeber correctly)

and this little one I have no idea what she is from she has a small poof and feather stubs on her legs

 

[DSTchickencraze]

I have a question that I hope you guys will be able to answer...

I was in Biology today and we somehow got on the track of talking about chickens... My biology teacher thought it was so cool that I had chickens, I also figured out that two other people in my class have chickens!

Anyways we were talking about how you could increase your flocks egg production by using light manipulation to trick their bodies into laying more. Is this true? If so is it even healthy for the chickens? I'm just asking because this week our egg production has gone way down all of a sudden. Everyone has been acting the same, no one looks sick, and it hasn't been getting too much colder... We experimented with free ranging them some (like we did with our Cuckoo Marans) and they loved it. The first day we did it we got three eggs, when we've usually been getting four to five. (We have about eight laying girls) We decided to keep them in just to see if there was a difference and we only got two. Well yesterday we free roamed and then got none!!!! I've decided that we won't free range for a while until they get even older, just so they get it into their heads to lay in the boxes, but I don't know why we have only been getting around 2 or 3 eggs. We should be getting more!

 

[BHep]

ADORABLE..........of course I am partial.

Anything with a poof..had to have come from the Brabanter hens. But who's he daddy...no clue.

my little babies from Bhep growing up

so cute!
sizzles


brabanter EE


smoothe frizzle ee(if i remeber correctly)

and this little one I have no idea what she is from she has a small poof and feather stubs on her legs

 

[Tikkijane]

I have a question that I hope you guys will be able to answer...

I was in Biology today and we somehow got on the track of talking about chickens... My biology teacher thought it was so cool that I had chickens, I also figured out that two other people in my class have chickens! 

Anyways we were talking about how you could increase your flocks egg production by using light manipulation to trick their bodies into laying more. Is this true? If so is it even healthy for the chickens? I'm just asking because this week our egg production has gone way down all of a sudden. Everyone has been acting the same, no one looks sick, and it hasn't been getting too much colder... We experimented with free ranging them some (like we did with our Cuckoo Marans) and they loved it. The first day we did it we got three eggs, when we've usually been getting four to five. (We have about eight laying girls) We decided to keep them in just to see if there was a difference and we only got two. Well yesterday we free roamed and then got none!!!! I've decided that we won't free range for a while until they get even older, just so they get it into their heads to lay in the boxes, but I don't know why we have only been getting around 2 or 3 eggs. We should be getting more! 

Chickens are dependant on light for egg production. Some say it takes 24 hours; I've seen some resources say it takes 30 to 32 hours. A more consistent average is 26 hours- most folks notice their girls lay a little bit later each day until they skip a day.

Production generally goes down during the winter because the days are shorter, which is why a lot of people use supplemental lighting. (We just talked about this here, too).

Because chickens hatch with all the eggs they will lay (like women), my personal preference is to let them lay naturally, which makes use of the hen longer, imo

Chickens won't lay when they molt, which is usually in the fall after their first year (around 15-18 months).

Train them to lay in the nesting box. All of ours are free ranged and they hop right in to lay. We have had some bickering over the "eggs" in the nesting box (faux golf balls), but fortunately, I just add more. Silly girls!

 

[Tikkijane]

my little babies from Bhep growing up so cute!
sizzles

brabanter EE

smoothe frizzle ee(if i remeber correctly)

and this little one I have no idea what she is from she has a small poof and feather stubs on her legs

Soooo cute!

 

[wildriverswolf90]

[COLOR=0000FF]ADORABLE..........of course I am partial.  [/COLOR]
[COLOR=0000FF]Anything with a poof..had to have come from the Brabanter hens.    But who's he daddy...no clue. [/COLOR]

Soooo cute!

Thanks
Beth- I love them they are so cute and friendly and I'm just glad most are feathering in like girls

 

[wildriverswolf90]

Sorry I have to share again, I'm just so around of how far my dog Aki has come iN four months!