Supplemental lighting

[Bald Bee Man]

We all know if we want chickens to lay through the winter months we need to add supplemental lighting or they will virtually quit laying...............RIGHT?
Most of us myself included learn by reading what we read typically on the internet and if we read it enough we assume that is correct. What I'm about to say I am not in playing supplemental lighting is a bunch of who ha, but I just question why I am seeing the following results.
I have always provided supplemental lighting based upon everything that i have read. My chickens have always laid good so I assume the supplemental lighting must have been doing its job. Last early fall we got some new chickens and I did some switching around. Long story short I ended up with two coops one with supplemental lighting and the other one with nothing. Much to my surprise both coops are laying at, at least 90%. That makes me question why the ones that are not getting the supplemental lighting are doing just as good as the ones that are. Most of my chickens are golden comets I've got 2 Buffs and 2 silkies and they seem to be laying great but they are in the lighted coop. I guess one would have thought with no extra lighting and since it got down to 17 below a few times this winter, that the non-lit coop would barely be producing anything, based upon my reading.. any thoughts?

 

[Frazzemrat1]

This is correct, making sure your chickens have at least 8 hours of 'daylight' can help continue egg production... However, many people prefer their chickens to have the winter break their bodies naturally have. My chickens did not have supplemental lighting, and they were young and not all were laying. Some started over the winter, and even then, the ones that hadn't started have by now. I have about 3 or 4 that I think aren't laying. Two definitely. The big pain for me with the ones that did lay was getting the eggs in a timely fashion so they didn't freeze.

 

[Trish1974]

I would guess it is because they are golden comets, bred to be mass egg producers. I have one GC in my flock, no supplemental lighting, and she is the only one that never took a break in laying this winter.

 

[AmazingRachel]

How far away are the coops? You may have light "bleeding" into the unlit coop.

 

[RonP]

How old are your birds? Same age in each coop?
Pullets 1st year usually will lay regardless through 1st winter before 1st molt.

 

[aart]

This is correct, making sure your chickens have at least 8 hours of 'daylight' can help continue egg production

Takes more than 8 hours of 'daylight'.
Even the shortest day of the year here is more than 9 hours.
Most supplemental lighting schedules are 12-14 hours,
and even that is no guarantee.

How old are your birds? Same age in each coop?
Pullets 1st year usually will lay regardless through 1st winter before 1st molt.

Good questions.
There are many variables.

 

[Frazzemrat1]

Takes more than 8 hours of 'daylight'.
Even the shortest day of the year here is more than 9 hours.
Most supplemental lighting schedules are 12-14 hours,
and even that is no guarantee.
.

oops... I guessed

 

[Bald Bee Man]

All chickens that are in the coop with lighting are just under 1 year old except one that is a year-and-a-half.
The chickens in the no lighting coop are a year-and-a-half to 2 years. I did it that way intentionally because I figured the older ones was going to start slowing down anyway. The comment about light bleeding in I actually thought of that. But there is no real Night Lights that would be bleeding in. I'm not going to say it's 100% Pitch Black there can be a tad bit bleeding in but not much. All the chickens in the coop with lighting I got from the same Place simultaneously. Except one in there is a year-and-a-half-old because it was being picked on by the other group. The reason I bring this up is right off the bat the first thing I noticed was the new group that goes in the lighted coop always went to roost a lot earlier and still does versus the unlit Coop. For the first week or so that one hen that was intermixed with them was not going to roosters early but she quickly adapted to their time frame.

 

[Johnny98]

I never bothered with supplemental lighting "back in the day" but this time around and after a lot of testing..

A light in the coop only resulted in lots of squabbling over roost space so I tried a double floodlight on a 24hr timer pointed at the run. The lighted run keeps them out of the coop for an extra hour at dusk and gets them out happily when I open the pop door an hour or more before sunrise.

Happy chickens!


While this all may go against some long held ways of doing things it sure works great for us. By no means offered as conclusive proof because it is a bit of apples/oranges but, our egg production has been at 100%. One of the neighboring flocks only lights the inside of the coop and they are near 50%, the other has no lighting and has dropped to near 0%. I would really like to see them try the setup we use and see if it changes anything.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

We all know if we want chickens to lay through the winter months we need to add supplemental lighting or they will virtually quit laying...............RIGHT?
Most of us myself included learn by reading what we read typically on the internet and if we read it enough we assume that is correct. What I'm about to say I am not in playing supplemental lighting is a bunch of who ha, but I just question why I am seeing the following results.
I have always provided supplemental lighting based upon everything that i have read. My chickens have always laid good so I assume the supplemental lighting must have been doing its job. Last early fall we got some new chickens and I did some switching around. Long story short I ended up with two coops one with supplemental lighting and the other one with nothing. Much to my surprise both coops are laying at, at least 90%. That makes me question why the ones that are not getting the supplemental lighting are doing just as good as the ones that are. Most of my chickens are golden comets I've got 2 Buffs and 2 silkies and they seem to be laying great but they are in the lighted coop. I guess one would have thought with no extra lighting and since it got down to 17 below a few times this winter, that the non-lit coop would barely be producing anything, based upon my reading.. any thoughts?

My reply is based on my situation and set up.
Just after the season changed, the days were shorter. With that my egg production dropped off the map. First it triggered a molt. Once the molt was somewhat complete, we installed a single high density LED light bulb on a timer. Set to go off at 4:30 am.
Our one bulb system just wakes them up. Gets them moving. Basically like humans first waking up with a cup of coffee, boosting their metabolism. Then the Sun slowly comes up and the day is made longer by the introduction of "The Alarm Clock Light". The effect took about 10 to 12 days to trigger the laying process to begin. And it wasn't all at once. It was a gradual increase.
We went from these numbers in our yield:
84 Hens producing 2 eggs a day to 64 average a day, this week. It climbs weekly. I expect it to continue a slight rise in yield every few days.
Once spring arrives. There will be no need for extended hours of lighting so the timer light will be removed until after next year's molt.

Our need to extend the day was prompted by the fact that even though we were not receiving any eggs, we were still spending money with feed for the massive volume of birds with zero return.