Red or white light - Would you eat your friends?

[newhenstein castle]

I added white light for a couple of hours in the morning to extend my chicken's daylight. Need eggs. Someone just told me to do red light instead as white light stresses the chickens and makes them age double as fast. They would die a lot earlier.

What is the scope on that?

And that triggered another thought. I love my chickens but how long will they live anyway after they stop laying? Would you eat your friends? Or should they just keep living on for five more years? With a coup size as ours they take the spot of a new layer. What happens to your ladies??


Thanks,
Conny

 

[trilyn]

Quote:
I'll be honest with you, I'm gonna cross that bridge when I get to it. I went into raising layers as pets, not food. Meaties on the other hand, well.....they're obviously destined for the freezer. As far as the light goes, I haven't heard anything about it making them age faster, there's a thread going now about the effects of light in the coop and is it "unnatural". Lemme try and find the link for you:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=273525&p=1

Good luck!

 

[gkeesling]

I don't think the red light will get them up and going like you want them to. I use a 60 watt bulb in the coop and a flood light in the run. They are both on the same timer and go on at about 3:00 a.m. and off at about 9:00 a.m. It gets dark here in Indiana now around 5:00 p.m..

I have 20 hens. I normally get mine in groups. I can tell what kinds of eggs the barr rocks lay and what ones the black sex links lay. When I see the egg laying rate reduce to much for the older group then I will "cull" them, put them in the freezer for chicken and noodle chicken, and get a new group of young hens. My chickens will last about 3 years before they get put in the freezer.

 

[teach1rusl]

I think the point of the red light is for night time...it's not glaring and stressful like the white light. But I think white lights are fine for simulating daylight hours... I've always thought that most people use the red bulbs when they have them on 24-7, like in a brooder or when they're on during the night (typically if people are using them to add a little heat).
I will not be eating my chickens when they're older, but I think of mine like my cats/dogs...they're pets. I just enjoy having them around...eggs are just a nice benefit. Besides, we don't eat tons of eggs in my family, so I'll just enjoy them while I have them. And who knows? Some egg laying breeds lay for many years...just less often.

 

[Whitehouse Quail]

Since these were raised as pets, I wouldn't eat them. (Heck, they probably wouldn't taste good, either. Old hen?

)

 

[dwegg]

well I am new to chickens and have had mine now for about 5 weeks (I got 5 girls old enough to lay and two young ones). I put a light in the coop and run that comes on at 3am and off at 9am. As soon as I did they started to lay. At first it was 1 egg, then 2 eggs, then 3 eggs..today I got 5 eggs!!!! from 5 girls and we have been getting 3-4 eggs everyday.
I have more eggs than I can handle so I have turned the light off in the coop but leave the run light on the timer now for 4am - 8am. We'll see if they slow down.

 

[chixie]

I have always used white light for my chicks past and present with no problems but I have never used it for grown chickens

 

[elmo]

Our chickens will end out their lives with us, just like our dog, our doves, our linnies and our budgies. They're pets, with temporary fringe benefits (eggs).

 

[Bucky182]

I guess growing up on a farm I have a different out look, they are a re-newable resource from God. He has even given us dominion over them. I take good care of my animals, and I eat them too when I need too. But that does not mean I don't care for them or anything like that, it just means I understand the natural circle of life.

PS Your chickens would eat you if given the chance. LOL But its true!

 

[Akane]

If you want to extend daylight hours and increase laying you need white light or as close to daylight spectrum as you can get at about the brightness to be able to read a newspaper. I'm not sure if you can put in enough of the other colors of light to trigger the same thing. With plants if you have enough just red or blue they will grow although they grow weird and it takes at least twice as much and sometimes up to 5 times as much light as white.

My chickens free range on land set aside for wildlife. Usually about the time I have enough pullets getting ready to go in the coop something has killed a bunch of my hens. I have few chickens more than a year old anyway and since I like hatching I don't really care too much. They enjoy free ranging and eventually I would turn them into dog food or sell them to someone else to butcher anyway. The extra roos do turn in to dog food. My dogs eat all raw diets and usually organic/home grown. They have their own freezer.