Silly question for you Alaska folk

[superchemicalgirl]

This may be an incredibly stupid question, but I'm going to ask anyway.

This time of year isn't it perpetual night up there? So what do your chickens do? Chickens generally roost when it's dark... do you have to turn a light on so they'll get off the roost and eat? Or am I being totally stupid?

Thanks for any light you can shed on this question (har har)

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
I don't think it's a stupid question. I've wondered that myself. I'll stay tuned for the answer.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

Alaska encomapasses a HUGE area. Texas will fit in three times!
I live in South Central Alaska, a couple hours north of Anchorage.
On our shortest day, which wil be here shortly, we will still have light for about 6 hours.
The day after the Solstice, we will start gaining light again, and as we get closer to summer, we will actually gain 5 minutes per day.

You have to actually cross the Arctic Circle in order to have all dark or all light at certain times of the year.
Take a look at a map, so you can see what I am talking about.

 

[michickenwrangler]

Quote:
I don't think it's a stupid question. I've wondered that myself. I'll stay tuned for the answer.

Honestly, I was curious too.

 

[Wolfwoman]

The answer is yes, a lot of us give supplemental light to our chickens if we want them to keep laying. Mine get 14 hours a day, and it's something as simple as a strand of Xmas lights in the coop on a timer.

 

[gingerpeach22]

It will dip to below four hours of daylight tomorrow and the sun won't rise much above the edges of the hills I see. I have a bulb in the coop which is on a timer set for about fourteen hours. I use some heat in the coop and all seems well. Most birds lay daily.

 

[PandoraTaylor]

gingerpeach22
Yesterday 9:35 pm It will dip to below four hours of daylight tomorrow and the sun won't rise much above the edges of the hills I see. I have a bulb in the coop which is on a timer set for about fourteen hours. I use some heat in the coop and all seems well. Most birds lay daily


This is why I have timers on coop lights and a thermo cube for the heat lamps. So far I have not had to use the heat lamp much, but the coldest weather is coming!

 

[alaskachick]

I live in a very wooded area so even the 5 hours of daylight we get here in Alaska is diminished by the woods (thick pine trees). My chickens still dust bath outside. I have a nice soft dirt bed area for them that I rake and fluff up for them every morning. They do not roost during the day, but when they go inside on their own for the nite, they roost and until we let them out at daylight at 10 am. They have a 40 watt tiny round light bulb that gives them the added light they need. Their coop is a large 20ish by 20ish room with 8 ft ceiling. They roost off the ground at 4ft. They have a tilted roosting ladder so they can roost at any level they want. Some like it higher and some like to be lower to the ground. My coop stays 50 degrees every nite with their body heat and the warmth from the light bulb. They seem to enjoy Alaska and lay a dozen eggs a day out of 13 chickens. One of my Buffys is not laying but she lost some feathers this fall and I think she is using her energy to grow more.

 

[Kanga77510]

People ask me that all the time down here, being a transplant from Alaska to Texas. Superchemicalgirl, here's what I tell them. It's very similar to folk in the Lower 48 having shorter days/sunset coming early. It's just more extreme in Alaska because we/they are farther north and thus closer/farther away from the sun.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091026005746AAVgpGD

 

[michickenwrangler]

I know southern Alaska--the panhandle--is warmer than the Upper Midwest and Dakotas.