What kind of light bulb/how long should it stay on?

[Nestled Chickens]

I'm giving in and adding light. I can't live without my farm fresh eggs. What kind of light bulb do we use? What wattage? And do we set it to turn on in the morning, turn on in the evening, or both? I'm assuming the light is supposed to go off at night.

 

[wyododge]

We use a flood light, right at about 60 watts(?). I used that bulb because it was close by. Just any old light bulb will do, nothing fancy. I would judge the wattage by the brightness in the coop. Don't want to blind the poor things.

As far as time, ours comes on at about 4 am, goes off at about 9, back on at 4pm and off at about 7pm. Some don't have their light on at night, we free range and it seems if they don't see the light, they don't go in, just wait outside. I have heard that they don't have good night vision and having the light on into the evening keeps them on the ground longer so they may not be able to see to jump up on the roosts. I have never run into that.

 

[lcammack]

We have a 40 watt bulb in ours that comes on at about 5am goes off at 8am then comes on again at 4pm off at 8pm. They should be getting about 14 hours of light, so adjust accordingly to your amount of daylight hours. Hope this helps!

 

[smkchick]

Quote:
I do exactly the same thing...

 

[greenriver]

What do most use for timers?

I have 10 BPR and they have not started to lay yet and
I want to add light.