Winter coop hours/ sleep time

[aart]

Nothing much is 'natural' about the way most folks keep chickens anyway. SMH.

I use lights every year. They get up & eat when the lights go on, but I have always kept the food & water in the coop for that purpose. I would never want them out in the run until the sun comes up.

Ditto Dat^^^

Funny enough, even though we have lights, they will still go into the hen house depending on natural daylight hours and sit there and wait for the lights to go off.

I've read this too, haven't seen it as I light in the AM....but even tho they are on the roost, or even sleeping, the light is still absorbed by the pineal gland.

 

[snow5164]

We provide light so they have 15 hours of light , we have a yard light so they can always see even at night.

I like to have the coop light for them so they can eat/drink and lay on a schedule. Egg production still slows a bit but not much .

We just use a regular bulb in each coop