When & how to wean chicks from having the light on all night?

[azelgin]

We put the coop light on a dimmer and turned it down over a few days. Worked great with no panicing at bed time.

 

[chickenbike]

Interesting with the dimmer idea. I used the method of reducing the wattage of the bulb and switching to a red colour light. I had a 25 watt, red bulb in as the last light before leaving it off. This was a no-heat bulb and was very dim in colour. I think this helped greatly to prepare them for no light.

 

[BJ]

This was great information...I learned a lot. Thanks for posting this topic, and all the great responses! I will be weaning my chicks off of the light in the next week or so.

 

[chickenbike]

Good luck....hopefully you don't have any sleepless nights!

 

[Gloria]

Well, tonight should be interesting. I thought I had it all figured out, I was wrong. One of my babies has decided she likes to sleep on the light! I have a heat lamp clamped to a 2x4 above the door with just a regular light bulb in it. I thought we could do this light on for bed time and then off when they've settled down. I guess that's not going to work.
Twice she flew up on the top of the light and knocked it down and blew the bulb. The last time everything fell except the clamp. So she blew it! lol No more light, I'm just a little worried about how tonight will go. I'm sure the grown up's aren't going to mind having no light. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

Mine are kept in the brooder in the house and they ahve not had a heat lamp or l ight of any type for a week now and they are all thriving. They don't seem to sleep well if I keep a regular light on and I needed the heat lamp for the other new babies. They are 4 1/2 weeks old now. It does stay about 70 indoors tho. At five weeks they are going out to the hen house with the big girls with NO light at all. We do keep one of those green looking night lights on in the hen house though