emjones
Hatching
Hi all, I have a question that I haven't found yet on the forum about controlling lighting and the length of the day for winter chicks. There's a note in Gail Damerow's "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens" (in the "Laying-Hen Management" chapter, "Lighting for Pullets" section) that says, "If you raise pullets in the off-season, increasing day length that normally triggers reproduction will speed up their maturity.... Pullets that start laying before their bodies are ready... are more likely to prolapse. Pullets should be kept either on a constant 8- to 10-hour day or in decreasing light. ... Those hatched from August to March need controlled lighting to delay maturity."
I received my day-old chicks in the mail on Feb. 2, 2022, and have been following the above advice. To give them controlled lighting, I set a light on a timer that turned on around midnight to effectively make the days 18 hours long during the first week. In the 6 weeks since then, I've been delaying the timer so the light turns on later each week, so the chicks' day length is decreasing. The goal is to reduce the amount of time the light is on gradually, until the chicks' day length matches the natural day length in June when they're 24 weeks old and ready to start laying eggs. This has worked well in their brooder in the garage, which is a decently large area (given the still-small size of the chicks). The light comes on at 2 am currently, and they have plenty of space to run around and do their thing.
Now it's time to move them from the garage out to the coop. While I don't have electricity in the coop, I can run an extension cord for the light. My concern, though, is that I don't have an automatic door on the coop. I'm worried the chicks will be in too-small an area for their entire "morning" from about 2 am until 6 or 7 am when I can go open their pop door and let them out into the run. I have a Producer's Pride Sentinel XL coop from TSC, with the interior "coop" part (not counting the fenced-in run) measuring about 3.5 ft x 5.5 ft, or 19.25 sq. ft. I have 9 chicks, so just over 2 sq. ft. / chick for the interior. I know this is lower than the 4 sq. ft. / chick that's usually cited, but this is only the interior of the coop where they sleep. They'll have a completely enclosed run that is 5.5 x 6.75 ft (~37 sq. ft or 4 sq. ft./chick) plus a large section of the yard that I've fenced off from the dogs (but not made otherwise predator-proof) that is ~ 35 x 55 ft (1,925 sq. ft. or 214 sq. ft. / chick) during the day.
Given all of that, my question is two-fold: a) Is the controlled lighting to mimic a reducing day length important? How big of a risk would I run regarding early egg laying and associated concerns of egg binding and prolapse, if I didn't bring the light out to the coop? Would it be bad to instead let the chicks operate on the natural day length, which is of course increasing right now in March? b) If I do need to continue to mimic the reducing day length, will the chicks be ok in the smaller inside coop area (9 chicks in 19 sq. ft.) for ~ 4 hours in their "morning", before I can open the pop door and give them access to the rest of their daytime run area?
This is my first time raising chicks, so I appreciate any and all feedback!
Thanks,
Elizabeth
I received my day-old chicks in the mail on Feb. 2, 2022, and have been following the above advice. To give them controlled lighting, I set a light on a timer that turned on around midnight to effectively make the days 18 hours long during the first week. In the 6 weeks since then, I've been delaying the timer so the light turns on later each week, so the chicks' day length is decreasing. The goal is to reduce the amount of time the light is on gradually, until the chicks' day length matches the natural day length in June when they're 24 weeks old and ready to start laying eggs. This has worked well in their brooder in the garage, which is a decently large area (given the still-small size of the chicks). The light comes on at 2 am currently, and they have plenty of space to run around and do their thing.
Now it's time to move them from the garage out to the coop. While I don't have electricity in the coop, I can run an extension cord for the light. My concern, though, is that I don't have an automatic door on the coop. I'm worried the chicks will be in too-small an area for their entire "morning" from about 2 am until 6 or 7 am when I can go open their pop door and let them out into the run. I have a Producer's Pride Sentinel XL coop from TSC, with the interior "coop" part (not counting the fenced-in run) measuring about 3.5 ft x 5.5 ft, or 19.25 sq. ft. I have 9 chicks, so just over 2 sq. ft. / chick for the interior. I know this is lower than the 4 sq. ft. / chick that's usually cited, but this is only the interior of the coop where they sleep. They'll have a completely enclosed run that is 5.5 x 6.75 ft (~37 sq. ft or 4 sq. ft./chick) plus a large section of the yard that I've fenced off from the dogs (but not made otherwise predator-proof) that is ~ 35 x 55 ft (1,925 sq. ft. or 214 sq. ft. / chick) during the day.
Given all of that, my question is two-fold: a) Is the controlled lighting to mimic a reducing day length important? How big of a risk would I run regarding early egg laying and associated concerns of egg binding and prolapse, if I didn't bring the light out to the coop? Would it be bad to instead let the chicks operate on the natural day length, which is of course increasing right now in March? b) If I do need to continue to mimic the reducing day length, will the chicks be ok in the smaller inside coop area (9 chicks in 19 sq. ft.) for ~ 4 hours in their "morning", before I can open the pop door and give them access to the rest of their daytime run area?
This is my first time raising chicks, so I appreciate any and all feedback!
Thanks,
Elizabeth
Very low lighting hours and they’ve been very reliable, the Wyandottes are pretty sporadic about laying still
