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

[mejumpmore1]

I'm interested in extending the "light hours" for my girls by adding some lights to their housing. I would love to hear what you use for this. I'm really interested in something solar with a timer. My husband wants to piece something together himself, but I'd like to see some options of what's out there at least to show him what might work for us. He wants there to be heat output as well as light although I'm not totally convinced that we actually need heat since we are in Alabama. I think they really just need to be blocked from wind and rain.

Thanks all for your input!

 

[kmollyhughes]

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.

 

[DallasCriftins]

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.

 

[MoonShadows]

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.

 

[aart]

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.

 

[Hokum Coco]

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.

 

[AK Baha]

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.