Ok, I have 25 hens and getting 4 to 6 eggs a day, today I got 2, this is rediculous, should I put a light in the coop and if so how many hours? Should I keep it on all night or a couple hours in the morning and a few hours after dark. Turning customers away because I don't have eggs is a bummer..
You need enough light for them to see so not too bright. It is better to give them light in the morning. You want to give them 14 hours of light a day. Use a timer. I turned mine on at 3:30 am each morning. You have to be careful to not miss a day with the light or they will quickly stop laying. Mine go out for the day. If you have them in a dark coop and run you will have to run the light all day for them. The reason you do not run the light at night is that the sudden darkness can scare them--they may hurt themselves. They will also have a had time finding their roosts. Good luck!
The 14 hour thing is largely over-kill. Chickens at the equator never see 14 hours of sunlight. We're down to about 10 hours 50 minutes here. If you want to try the light therapy, all you need is to have it come on a couple hours before sunrise to supplement their "day". That's usually enough to do the job. Some folks prefer their birds rest through the fall and winter, ala letting nature take it's course. It is a choice. I completely agree with the post above about allowing dusk to fall naturally so they go to their roosts in a normal way.
I know I'm in the minority here, but my light goes off after sunset. I need the light in the barn. I have been out there before the light in their pen goes out and they are mostly settled in on the roosts well before. When I turn the other light in the barn out, the nightly roosting squabbles are long over. I guess mine have a good internal clock that tells them its time for bed.
