Kind of confused on the light thing...

[mockcherry]

I read a bunch of past posts and became even more confused. If someone would help clarify, pretty please!!! If we decide not to go with lights, and egg production decreases too much, I can add a light at a later time and after a few days, egg production will come back up? If I add a light it could be a UV light or an incandescent with no ill effects? And if it's a UV, does it need to be a particular light spectrum? Also, what would be the lowest wattage? And the optimum would be 16 hours of light a day, a few in the a.m. and a few on the back end? If I decide we don't need a light, production is okay, then can I use a red bulb over the waterer to keep the water liquid with no ill effects on the birds? The birds are free range during the day. Australorps, Speckled Sussex, Dark Brahmas, and an ee - so most of these are good winter birds.

Thanks for taking the time to answer!

 

[ZaneyMama]

I have no idea, but I have the same question. I'd love to hear the answer!

 

[swimmer]

Same here. My first year with the girls, still not laying. Should be some time the end of October. But am thinking of no light also. Just wondering if they wouldn't lay at all and not until spring with lack of light.
Something we were thinking of was a solar light. They have them at Lowes/Home Depot and we have one for a shed. The one we have doesn't put off a lot of light, but I'm sure inside a coop it would be plenty. Or how about the shortest string of white x-mas lights you could find?
But I was kind of wondering too, if in the middle of winter I decided to add light, would that "confuse" the girls? Would we get eggs all of a sudden? Growing up I don't remember having lighting for the chickens. And still had eggs in the long dark Wisconsin winters.

 

[ChickenfeedR]

My girls started laying in October and kept laying all winter without any added light. However, I put their coop in the sunny part of the yard and I live in California. My preference is natural light and let the girls have a rest whenever they need one. Check with someone local to you and ask them if they use lights especially if you get real winter where you live. Or wait until they stop laying and add a light to encourage them to lay.
Hope this helps,

Larry

 

[Ohhhdear]

I have read that chickens require 14+ hours of daylight to lay. I'm going to use a 40 watt LED strip (takes 10 watts of power) attached to the inside roof peak of my coop, and set it on a timer to turn on at 6am and go off at 8pm.
I've looked at solar powered lighting, but most have an attached battery which only provides 2 hours of additional light. Most solar panels provide only 5 or less watts of power to charge a battery, and they're very expensive.
I've seen solar panel and wind power charged lighting at big RV stores and online catalogs, and also stores which cater to boaters.

 

[Judy]

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