Short days and lighting the coop. What do you use?

We just put a low watt bulb in the brooder light base and hang in in the coop. We have a 10x10 coop, 6' at the highest point. We run it on a timer from 5 am to 730 then from 5 pm til 9. The light puts off a little heat, because even though we're in the 20's the coop is usually around 30-40 degrees and the girls (and boys) seem fine.

 

I have 11W CF bulbs in each of my Coops they are on timers and come on at 06:30 and off at 07:30 then on a16:00 off at 17:00
They are there purely to help us put the birds to bed and tidy up in the dark. I am not really after extending the birds hours to increase the egg count as we get more than enough to get by.

 

A friend of mine uses a string of LED Christrmas lights on a timer and says they work real well. As for me, I use nothing. I Figure if Mother Nature built in a rest period by shortening the days, I'm going to let my girls enjoy it...even if it means I don't get as many eggs as I want. I don't like to mess with mother nature.

 

I have a 40 watt white incandescent bulb that comes on at 3:30am to give 14 hours of light...it helps, but a few of my 18 month old hens are molting and light will not help egg production when molting.

Here's a good article on supplemental light.

 

My experience adding light:
Spending a dollar trying to save 10¢.
It only makes sense (no pun intended) in a large operation not for one or two dozen hens.

 

I use the bulb style LED on a timer. They work great!! Hardly use any power do not get hot and the bulb is plastic so don't have to worry about broken glass.