Hello! I have 7 girls that are almost 19 weeks now and although it still is relatively early I concerns over their egglaying. I have heard that in the winter I need to supply artificial light, so do I? To get them started? P.S. I was originally planning to let my chickens be natural in the winter and not supply any light. Secondly due to the proximity of my chicken coop in relation to my house, running electricity isn't a viable option so is there any other way to get electricity/light in the coop?
I have a light in my coop that reacts to movement and amount of light. I have to check what it's called, though. The light turns on when the sun is down and the chickens are still active in the coop. As I said, this light is motion activated and turns on when the chickens are moving. When they start to rest, the light dimmens so they can rest a bit more easily.
I leave for work at 615 so I do put a light on at 6 so the girls can see to eat when I open their coop. It have been getting dark here by 445 and it doesn't matter if I have a light on or not they are marching up the ramp at 430 lol. As soon as they are settled on roost i shut the light off. It is what their instinct is and as much as i would like eggs all winter I am not going to mess with what is natural to them
If you are going to start supplemental light, now is the time to do it. In another 5 weeks, the days are going to start getting longer naturally, and then there really won't be much point in adding light.
If you add light, it needs to be scheduled lighting. If you provide it randomly, that will mess with their hormone production, and possibly be counter productive to the health of your flock. Your girls may very well start laying very soon after the winter solstice if you do nothing. If you do add light, it should be: warm light, or red spectrum (don't confuse this with a red heat lamp!) It should provide enough light that you could read a news paper in the coop. It should be ramped up slowly to about 14 hours/day. I use a heavy duty extension cord to get power to my coop. It is attached to a GFCI outlet at the house, and has a surge protector at the coop. That extension cord allows me to provide light, heated water, and run a MHP cave brooder.