Surveillance camera infrared lights. Will they keep my chickens awake at night?

[ATGATT]

I have almost completed my coop and I was considering the effect my surveillance camera's infrared lights might have on the hens. I have one which will point directly at one of the windows from above and I had considered putting one inside the coop as well. How will the lights affect the hens?

 

[MeepBeep]

No it will not keep them awake, even if they can 'see' it it's very, very low lumens nothing that is going to bother them...

 

[TwoCrows]

I have found that even very low light levels effect birds. Honestly, they need at least 8 hours of solid darkness. I read somewhere about an experiment done with a single small candle flame in the coop in the winter. It was enough to stop them from going into a molt and the birds laid eggs all winter. And while infra-red is not supposed to bother their sleeping cycle patterns, I would still prefer to have my birds with at least 8 hours of solid darkness.

In your case of wanting to use these lights for deterring predators, I would point these lights along the outside low to the ground where you think they might be digging, climbing up to a window or on the roof, etc...predators are vulnerable themselves at ground level where they already are. I keep white solar lights all around my coop and run. They are at ground level and I point them right at the coop about a foot up along the sides. I have found this is enough to keep the coyotes, cougars, coons, skunks, etc... from prowling. Nothing likes to be seen at night, including the predators. However I don't allow these lights to shine into any windows to disturb the sleeping birds. Some of my solar lights have been burning for 7 years now and other than a battery change around the 5th year, I have never done any maintenance to these things.

 

[MeepBeep]

I have found that even very low light levels effect birds.

The moon on a clear night reflects more light than the IR light put out by security cameras... Anyone that lives in an urban area most likely never sees a dark night... Plus the IR is an entirely different band of light and simply does not effect their sleep patterns...

Beyond artificial environments like locked coops a bird is never going to get total darkness, and they do just fine with small amounts of light at night...

In your case of wanting to use these lights for deterring predators, I would point these lights along the outside low to the ground where you think they might be digging, climbing up to a window or on the roof, etc...predators are vulnerable themselves at ground level where they already are. I keep white solar lights all around my coop and run. They are at ground level and I point them right at the coop about a foot up along the sides. I have found this is enough to keep the coyotes, cougars, coons, skunks, etc... from prowling. Nothing likes to be seen at night, including the predators. However I don't allow these lights to shine into any windows to disturb the sleeping birds. Some of my solar lights have been burning for 7 years now and other than a battery change around the 5th year, I have never done any maintenance to these things. 

IMO lights are useless as a predator deterrent in the long run, in most areas predators have become so urbanized and don't give a hoot about artificial lights... There are coyotes, raccoons, skunks and what not in my area that walk down the fully lit sidewalks in neighborhoods as peoples motion detector lights blink on and off as the animals pass, doesn't phase them at all... I live on a farm and I have area lights around all the outbuildings, trust me it doesn't phase the predators at all, but it does make it a lot easier for me to sling hot lead at them when they do come around...

 

[ATGATT]

IMO lights are useless as a predator deterrent in the long run, in most areas predators have become so urbanized and don't give a hoot about artificial lights... There are coyotes, raccoons, skunks and what not in my area that walk down the fully lit sidewalks in neighborhoods as peoples motion detector lights blink on and off as the animals pass, doesn't phase them at all... I live on a farm and I have area lights around all the outbuildings, trust me it doesn't phase the predators at all, but it does make it a lot easier for me to sling hot lead at them when they do come around...

I'm not so much worried about predators as I am people. (I have cameras all around my house) I do, however, also like the idea of being able to check on my birds at night without going to the coop.

 

[MeepBeep]

IMO lights are useless as a predator deterrent in the long run, in most areas predators have become so urbanized and don't give a hoot about artificial lights... There are coyotes, raccoons, skunks and what not in my area that walk down the fully lit sidewalks in neighborhoods as peoples motion detector lights blink on and off as the animals pass, doesn't phase them at all... I live on a farm and I have area lights around all the outbuildings, trust me it doesn't phase the predators at all, but it does make it a lot easier for me to sling hot lead at them when they do come around...

I'm not so much worried about predators as I am people. (I have cameras all around my house) I do, however, also like the idea of being able to check on my birds at night without going to the coop. 

Understand, that reply was to another poster...

As for IR, if you go to this page you will see the 'visual spectrum' a chicken (and human) can see http://www.onceinnovations.com/the-science/poultry-vision

If we look at the chart of 'chicken vision' below, we can see that chickens can see much more IR and UV than humans, but even the chickens IR vision is pretty much over at 750nm, the standard IR wavelength for IR cameras is 840-850nm (or 950nm in some high end cases) both well outside the chickens visual range... That isn't to say their 'third eye' glands might not detect it to some degree, but again it's very low lumens in the end and will become the 'norm' so I highly doubt it's even a measurable concern in chicken sleep behavior... As I said I'll bet the lunar cycles or degree of clouds in the sky effects their sleep more, and that is nature....

 

[DeVoe]

I'm not so much worried about predators as I am people. (I have cameras all around my house) I do, however, also like the idea of being able to check on my birds at night without going to the coop.

Some cameras have to where you can turn off IR on that cam, just remember when you want to look just turn the IR on for that Cam.

 

[Big Boy Family]

This is my experience. A few days after I installed a CCTV camera with night vision (IR) inside the coop I found out that majority of the quails have moved away from the IR spot. Also, when I point the camera to the chickens, they were looking at it with eyes wide open because I can see the IR reflection from their eyes. I'm 100% sure they can see the IR as human can see the torch light and it does bother their sleep.

 

[drdoct]

I personally turn my IR off in the coop. The blast of light it puts off is a lot if it's able to be seen by the chickens. I don't know if they can see or not. But it's not worth it to me. FWIW, I've debated leaving the chicken run camera's IR on because that light bleeds through the chicken door into the coop at night. I use the coop camera mostly to see if they're all in AND who is laying or not. I don't really watch them sleeping so the IR is unnecessary for my use.

 

[EdgeC]

Just wanted to add my experience to this, even though its a old reply of a reply (still is first showed up on google for a different search)

I have ran my nightvision cameras inside their coop for most of the winter... they pecked at it at first but now tend to crowd and sleep around the camera... They all still stopped production/are not producing this late fall/winter.

(So while each camera is different and all put out different amounts of light...) ours did not increase production or prevent molting.

With this said... my chickens seem to be much blinder at night compared to my ducks.

Just my first hand experience for almost a year now.