Solar Lighting

[James the Bald]

Provide full spectrum lighting to benefit your quail. "Having a full spectrum light is beneficial: Encourages breeding, strengthens immune system, aids in Vitamin D synthesis" and a whole lot more, but I don't want a lawsuit from Stellar for copyright infringement, as this came from pg 52 of her book, "Coturnix Revolution".
James

 

[marksouth]

You are correct James, Stellar says that in her book and also in a post here on the forum so I think you're safe from copyright infringement. I wish I could provide full spectrum but running a cord to my pen is not a possibility here on my land so I'm stuck with batteries. An inverter would use too much juice on batteries just barely keeping up on all these cloudy days. Very good advice to those that have the option for full spectrum. If Stellar says it, do it.

 

[marksouth]

Stuck with batteries also means I'm stuck with LED, that's why I went with warm white to get as close to natural light as possible. Ordinary LED gives an offensive blue white which I felt would annoy my birds. The LED strips can be cut to size so I actually only use a quarter strip to give a warm glow in the pen 8 feet long, for anyone considering them.

 

[livelifebyluck]

Ok good info I did find warm lights and I saw that book but was hesitant to purchase a $75 dollar book! Do y'all think it's worth it though? And where I have the pen located I get a lot of morning and afternoon light and it's outta the wind the only down side is that the sun doesn't rise till 7?!? Ughh

 

[dc3085]

Ok good info I did find warm lights and I saw that book but was hesitant to purchase a $75 dollar book! Do y'all think it's worth it though? And where I have the pen located I get a lot of morning and afternoon light and it's outta the wind the only down side is that the sun doesn't rise till 7?!? Ughh

I can tell you that the information in the book (although I've not read it) will be good solid information. And probably the most consolidated (and reputable) source of coturnix info that you'll come across. you could also click on her profile Stellar and read her old posts as she used to offer a great deal of advice on here (and still does occasionally) might give you an idea of what type of info you'll find in her book.

 

[marksouth]

I can tell you that the information in the book (although I've not read it) will be good solid information. And probably the most consolidated (and reputable) source of coturnix info that you'll come across. you could also click on her profile Stellar and read her old posts as she used to offer a great deal of advice on here (and still does occasionally) might give you an idea of what type of info you'll find in her book. 

that's great advice to click on her profile and read her posts! I'm fairly new to the site and have run across her posts but never knew to do that. Thanks and appreciate your posts as well.

 

[dc3085]

Stuck with batteries also means I'm stuck with LED, that's why I went with warm white to get as close to natural light as possible. Ordinary LED gives an offensive blue white which I felt would annoy my birds. The LED strips can be cut to size so I actually only use a quarter strip to give a warm glow in the pen 8 feet long, for anyone considering them.

I'm not an electrician but is it possible to solder some sort of pigtail on a 12v MR16 and run that off a battery? Not having the inverter would mean you could run it till the cows come (the one I found is 12v 6w LED). Doesn't probably matter all that much but I do like science experiments, so let me know what you think and maybe I'll mess around with it.

http://www.1000bulbs.com/product/63063/LED-MR62550G53.html

This light bulb is considered full spectrum. Any bulb with a color temperature of 5000 Kelvin or higher is full spectrum but this is the only one I could find with a 12v input voltage.

 

[marksouth]

I think that would work, I like it. Good job, might try that myself.

 

[livelifebyluck]

Hopefully if I can get all the stuff I'll be setting mine up next week! If you guys try any of these ideas I'd love to pictures I'm really curious about this aspect of alternate energy and already have a couple of projects I want to incorporate it in!

 

[dc3085]

Hopefully if I can get all the stuff I'll be setting mine up next week! If you guys try any of these ideas I'd love to pictures I'm really curious about this aspect of alternate energy and already have a couple of projects I want to incorporate it in!

I'll mock up the connections on a battery and take some pictures. I don't have a solar panel to show you with but the simplicity of the wiring of this system is pretty awesome. 2 leads from the solar panel to the battery and two leads from the battery to the light.