Supplemental lighting for pullets?

[WaveyCreekChickens]

Congratulations on your new eggs.

That was a joke. They were my old hens laying today when I plugged in the timer.

By the way, I unplugged it again. Your explanation convinced my girlfriend that letting things happen naturally is best.

 

[Aunt Angus]

That was a joke. They were my old hens laying today when I plugged in the timer.

By the way, I unplugged it again. Your explanation convinced my girlfriend that letting things happen naturally is best.

HAHAHAHA! I was wondering! I didn't want to be the one to tell you that those eggs arriving on the day you added the light were a coincidence!

 

[Lady of McCamley]

That was a joke. They were my old hens laying today when I plugged in the timer.

By the way, I unplugged it again. Your explanation convinced my girlfriend that letting things happen naturally is best.

Lol. I thought it was just coincidence that they just happened to start to lay today...and they may come into lay yet this fall. Commercial Orps come into lay about 22 to 24 weeks so you should be close...if your short Canada days haven't played a factor already.

As said I prefer to let hens have a natural cycle. I find my layers live much longer and healthier overall. Sometimes a little patience is best....but then I'm not trying to feed the city populace.

LofMc

 

[Cindy in PA]

Thanks for that!
And? Do you use supplemental lighting?

I have my light go on at 5 a.m. year-round, so I do have some lighting. For 20 years I did the 14 hours of light in the winter & didn't feel it was detrimental to the girls. I dialed it back 5 years ago when I got my first broody hen in 20 years & kept it that way because 5 of 9 of my next bunch of blue Wyandottes were constantly broody & with 14 hours of light a day, they would be broody in the winter also.

 

[WaveyCreekChickens]

I have my light go on at 5 a.m. year-round, so I do have some lighting. For 20 years I did the 14 hours of light in the winter & didn't feel it was detrimental to the girls. I dialed it back 5 years ago when I got my first broody hen in 20 years & kept it that way because 5 of 9 of my next bunch of blue Wyandottes were constantly broody & with 14 hours of light a day, they would be broody in the winter also.

Thanks for that info! That’s good to know.

 

[Cindy in PA]

I would love to see the evidence that lighting to 14 hours a day cuts down the # of years they lay. Just like humans, they would most likely stop laying eggs for other reasons BEFORE they run out of eggs. Production breeds may be the exception. JMHO

 

[WaveyCreekChickens]

I started with March hatched chicks in 2018. I had the chickens in the barn with goats, so they got 12 hours of light per day, as I milk my goats every 12 hours.
The hens started laying in the early fall and layed through the winter that first year. One of them (Snow White) is still actively laying today, and has been taking 1 or 2 months off every winter after the first). In 2019, at the end of May, Snow White hatched out a single pullet chick, Becky Pecky. This hen also had 12 hours of light per day. She layed her first egg at the end of December and has been a strong layer since. She took two weeks off in her second winter. In the spring of 2021 the chickens moved to a separate coop. I had supplemental lighting for them in the form of a multicoloured Christmas light string for 14 hours, and a white bulb for 13 hours. The hens, including Becky Pecky took almost 3 months off that winter.

I also acquired 4 adult Brahma hens in August 2020, that were supposed to be the same age as Snow White. Out of the 4 only one lays consistently (also takes winters off), and the other 3 have layed maybe 10 eggs each in total in 2.5 years.

My new batch of chicks hatched in early May of this year.
So, now I will find out what happens if I don’t give any additional light.

 

[aart]

I would love to see the evidence that lighting to 14 hours a day cuts down the # of years they lay. Just like humans, they would most likely stop laying eggs for other reasons BEFORE they run out of eggs. Production breeds may be the exception. JMHO

No, they wouldn't 'run out of eggs' but constant laying could/would degrade their overall health which would/could decrease their life or laying capacity.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I would love to see the evidence that lighting to 14 hours a day cuts down the # of years they lay. Just like humans, they would most likely stop laying eggs for other reasons BEFORE they run out of eggs. Production breeds may be the exception. JMHO

How, when, and why to light is complicated in the poultry industry. While it is agreed that 12 to 14 hours of lighting, with the appropriate type lighting, is generally considered safe, much has not been studied, and overall consensus is definitely that too much light, the wrong kind of light, and light too early, is a bad thing. A growing suspicion that unnatural lighting is actually harmful is beginning to receive some merit.

This article is probably the most succinct in explaining the complicated process of proper lighting and warns using too much lighting too early in sexual maturity will lessen the overall laying life of a hen and risk prolapse.
https://extension.umaine.edu/publications/2227e/

This abstract below shows the growing interest in doing research on the overall welfare of poultry and how long hour light actually reduces egg production and lowers immune system. (I had trouble getting the link to do anything other than download the article, but I've copied the important paragraph and wrote the link below).

"4.1.1. Light Duration Light duration is important for the growth, reproduction, and welfare of chickens. In poultry production, chickens are confronted with long-light phases. However, extremely long-light cycles are associated with reduced performance. In the European Union, an uninterrupted darkness of 8 h for laying hens is mandatory to maintain normal circadian rhythms and promote maximum rest because intermittent darkness may affect the rest and feeding of the chickens, resulting in a variety of metabolic and immune disorders [15,54]. Hence, keeping chickens under short-light conditions could lead to stronger responsiveness Animals 2022, 12, 729 6 of 14 against bacterial infections and better responses to vaccinations [53], and decrease the risk of vent pecking [55]. Given the freedom to choose different light intensities (<1 lux–100 lux), W-36 laying hens (23–30 weeks) spent an accumulation of 10.0 h in darkness (<1 lux) per day, and dark hours were distributed intermittently throughout the day, which differed from the typical commercial practice of providing continuous dark periods for certain parts of the day (e.g., 8 h at night) [56]. On the contrary, pullets reared on long durations (14 h to 17 h) mature faster than birds reared on constant 10 h [57]. Introducing 2 h midnight lighting (ML, 2 h + 12 h) late in the growing period (12–18 wk) also induced early maturity and had the least egg production (302) from 18 to 70 wk, whereas providing 2 h ML from 0–18 wk resulted in the greatest number of eggs (317), and ML given only from 0–12 wk of age had the effect of delaying maturity and produced a middling number of eggs (310–312) [58]. However, the midnight lighting treatments had quite minor effects on the growth and feed intake of pullets according to another study by the same authors [59]."
Effects of Key Farm Management Practices on Pullets Welfare—A Review
MDPI
Animals 2022, 12, 729. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12060729
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/animals (peer reviewed)

https://www.mdpi.com › pdf

 

[Cindy in PA]

No, they wouldn't 'run out of eggs' but constant laying could/would degrade their overall health which would/could decrease their life or laying capacity.

Using lighting, when done correctly, does not keep them from molting & resting.