Supplemental light for winter laying

[swimmer]

Smallest strand of white Chritmas lights have worked for me. Have them hooked to a timer to come on around 3 a.m.

 

[BriardChickens]

We have ~11 hours of daylight at the moment. I turn on the lights in the coop before I leave for work (5:30am) and turn them off when I go to bed. (8:30 pm). Most of my chickens are just about to start laying in the next month or so.

 

[AngelRed]

We are working on adding supplemental light to our coop, but I have a question about the coop door. We currently open it manually as close to sunrise as possible, but if we add the early light, should we be opening the coop door early, as well? I've read that chickens should have access to food/water within an hour of waking, and we don't want to keep that much food inside the coop. Is it better to open the door (and let in the cold) with the early light? Or figure out a way to get more food/water in the coop? Or do they not really wake up fully with the light and just get moving when the real sun is up?

Thanks!

 

[aart]

We are working on adding supplemental light to our coop, but I have a question about the coop door. We currently open it manually as close to sunrise as possible, but if we add the early light, should we be opening the coop door early, as well? I've read that chickens should have access to food/water within an hour of waking, and we don't want to keep that much food inside the coop. Is it better to open the door (and let in the cold) with the early light? Or figure out a way to get more food/water in the coop? Or do they not really wake up fully with the light and just get moving when the real sun is up?

Thanks!

If the lights are on, they should have food and water.
I keep food and water in the coop anyway so I'm not feeding every wild bird around and it's easier to keep the water liquid. My light come on at ~3:30am these days but I don't open the coop door to the run until well after sunrise because of predators as my run is not predator proof.

 

[brijetterom]

Thanks for the great info. So is there a advantage to having their days extended in the morning (turning the light on at 4am) instead of extending the light into the evening.

Also, if its mid novemeber now and I have not started this, is it too late to start supplemental lighting? Also, I live in Southern California.

 

[aart]

You can start now, but it should be increased slowly to avoid stress and will take a awhile to have an effect.

Last winter I used a 40 watt incandescent light(this year I am using a CFL) that comes on early in the morning to provide 14-15 hours of light and they go to roost with the natural sundown. Last year I started the lighting increase a bit late(mid October), the light should be increased slowly, and the pullets didn't start laying until late December. Here's pretty good article on supplemental lighting. Some folks think that using lighting shortens the years a hen will lay, I don't agree with that theory but I also plan to cull my older hens for soup at about 3 years old.

 

[brijetterom]

So did I screw the pooch on this one by not starting in Septemeber. What can I expect from my chickens as far as laying goes if I start the lighting tonight?

Also, totally unrelated, but do you know of a good coop camera?

Thanks!

 

[Den in Penn]

The time year when you start to increase the length of their day isn't critical. When I started the flock in my new coop with pullets I expected them to lay all winter without extra light. However they had other plans and wanted to take the winter off. They when from laying eight eggs in October to two in November. I started increasing their day around this time. By late December they were back up. I know everyone believes that pullets will lay through the winter. But I think the earlier in the year they hatch the more likely they are to slow down in their first winter. That crew was hatched in early march and had been laying for four months in October.

 

[RonP]

I posted this on another query, this is how I do it, works extremely well, hope it helps:

There are a lot of opinions on supplementing light to keep the chickens laying during time period where there is less than 12-14 hours of available daylight.

My coop gets 16 hours of light 351 days per year.

I turn lights off for 14 days to have birds go into a controlled moult late September .

Having had to install electricity for the thermostatically controlled water heater, I took advantage and installed a lighting system.

My system has two timers. The first is set to turn the lights on at 5:30am, off at 9pm.

Power goes on, passes through a photocell, then to a 300 lumen LED bulb, 4.8 watts, in the 8x8 foot print coop, and 2 4.8 watt LEDs for the 14x14 foot print outside run.

I light the run because I found the birds huddled outside the coop door in the dark one 5:30am morning...
They have access to the run 24/7, as it is as secure as the coop.

The lights are on only when it is dark enough outside to be necessary.
The time on very closely mimics my Summer Solstice in NJ.

The second timer is set to go on at 8:30pm, off at 9:30pm, a diffused 200 lumen LED 4 watt bulb.
This low light allows the birds to settle in before all lights out and 8 hours of darkness.

This system costs less than $5 per year to operate..

 

[3littlechicken]

Will halogen light Help winter laying?