Winter lighting suggestions

[Urlec]

I want a timer that can be hooked up to 110 volt I do have LED lights on it but I would like them to fade in and out for sunrise/sunset it's difficult to find a timer that fades. They do make them for fish tanks but they are DC not 110v.

12v dc? If so could rv lighting be a possibility?

 

[Rickovo]

The amount of light needed to keep them in lay is quite small and all at the red end of the spectrum. Too much light from a house window into the roost will do it.

https://www.onceinnovations.com/wp/...0/Science-of-Poultry-Vision-Single-Pages1.pdf

Timed power dimmers are available but very expensive. Dimming in 4 steps with common timers is relatively cheap (though a bit fiddly to set up the 10 min intervals at first.)

P.S. Make sure any lighting is 'smooth'. Most household LED lighting is high frequency inverted or smoothed DC so OK but some supplies are AC and cause a flicker. If you can see a strobe effect if you wave your fingers under the light then they will see it much clearer and it will stress them out.

 

[aart]

Maybe I worded that wrong or made it confusing.
The light systems either have a timer and are motion sensored or they or they don't have a timer at all. I want them to come on and stay on for sure.
I'll check out the article.
Thanks

I would like to see a link to the solar light with a timer.....could you provide one?

 

[trifecta]

FWIW, I bought a cheap solar "camping lantern" on eBay and hung it in the coop. $15 AUD including shipping. It comes on at dusk. I have an alarm set to remind me to turn it off in the evening.
No, its not the perfect scenario of adding hours in the morning. But, it was at a price point I was happy with, the solar panel (on the roof of my coop) has held up well- the inconvenience of having to remember to turn it off has been minimal.
Obviously our seasons are opposite yours down here, but I started my 18 week old pullets under it during the middle of winter and had eggs 2 weeks later, so I think the output was enough. I'm now in the process of backing them off the light as we are finally getting close to the 14hr mark here for actual day length.

 

[Howard E]

Google "lights to keep chickens laying". Lots of good info and much of it here on BYC. Keeping them in production is the only valid reason and when it is done, it is done in the morning.....never at the end of the natural day.

Having said that, my suggestion is don't do it. Unless you are running a commercial flock and need to fill orders for customers, let them slow down and rest for a few months. Let nature run it's course. They will start to pick up again as the days start getting longer. Until then, if you currently have a surplus of eggs, you can freeze them to use in just about anything that does not require a whole intact egg. Use what you do get for anything that does.

As an aside, this deal with winter light has been known for a long time. Long before electric lights were available. Back in the day, before the large commercial layer houses were around, farmers and such (people like us) were the commercial layers. Due to hens shutting down, eggs in winter were scarce. So winter eggs were the valuable eggs.......maybe 3X what they were in spring and summer. So tricks were devised to maximize natural winter lighting to keep them going to the extent possible.

Go back to the 2nd post in this thread and study JackE's Woods house. Notice all the openings on the south side. Those down low and those up high and also the side windows. Both sides.....so window openings on all sides except the north one. Also know that Jack painted the inside of this coop white. So in winter, it is bright white in there and the light starts reflecting around at the crack of dawn. It is not dark as a house with few to no windows would be, or those with windows covered or not facing south, and with dark natural wood inside. It all counts and it all matters. Back in the day they even went so far as to suggest facing the coop about 10 degrees east of south to get the maximum benefit of the sun. And no extension cords or solar lights required.