Using red light to work with chickens?

BarnyardChaos

Free Ranging
6 Years
Apr 23, 2017
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Richmond, MO
When I do health checks or banding, or whatever reason I must handle the birds, I do it after dark and use a headlamp. Tonight I needed to move 18 seven-week-old chicks from their "schoolhouse" coop and into the integration area inside my Big Coop. It's always fright night for the birds when I mess around in there after bedtime, right? So I got the bright idea to try the red light on my headlamp instead of white light. And boy was it soooo much easier! The birds didn't flap and squawk and create a wave of panic. They were CALM, only a little fearful, but I was able to just reach down and pick them up. I turned on the white light as necessary, but then switched back to red when bright light wasn't needed. It was a game-changer!
 
That's really cool! I was wondering if there was a spectrum of light that wouldn't bother them as much, good to know.
I wonder if it's because I raised them in a brooder with a red heat bulb, and they associate red light with comfort perhaps?
It occurred to me only because I know using red light in the brooder minimizes pecking and injuries.
 
I'm curious how various types of lighting affect chickens sense of day length, vision, etc. I know day length sensitive plants set their reproductive cycle by specific wavelengths of light, so if you want to work with them during their "night" you can use green light because they don't "see" it. So what's the narrowest spectrum of light you can use to disrupt a winter laying break, or should you avoid if you're trying to do a forced molt?

According to "Mike the Chicken Vet," chickens have a broader color range than we do:
... chickens have tetra-chromatic vision, while we have tri-chromatic. In english, chickens have 4 wavelengths they are sensitive to, while we see 3 (red, green and blue). The chicken eye sees red, green and blue as well, but they are also sensitive to ultraviolet light.

He also mentions that fluorescent lights flicker at a speed chickens can perceive and get annoyed at, but does anyone know how they react to LED lights? They're much narrower wavelength than fluorescent or incandescent, and depending on the bulb/power source, can also have flickering issues.

That chicken vet link is really interesting BTW. Trying to imagine how other animals see is really mind bending.
 
According to "Mike the Chicken Vet," chickens have a broader color range than we do:
[...]
That chicken vet link is really interesting BTW. Trying to imagine how other animals see is really mind bending.
Thanks for the link! I've just spent the better part of the last hour reading through a tiny portion of his posts. INTERESTING! and informative!
That's a rabbit hole I'll visit time and time again.
 

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