When to turn the lights on? ACK!! post 29

[thistlebloom]

When I have done it, I add the light to the morning hours. Since your chickens are young- I am not sure you will really need light to increase laying? So sad to be thinking about shorter days...

No, I'm not trying to increase laying Lesa, I'm trying to jumpstart the little boogers. I haven't gotten a single egg yet, and 4 of them are over 27 weeks old. I was hoping to keep them on a longer day schedule so they don't decide to wait for spring. It's been so long since I gathered more than one egg every several days that I don't remember what it was like to send a carton or two home with my son because we had an abundance. I've been buying chicken food AND eggs for so long now.

 

[HotPepperQueen]

I have my light on a timer to turn on in the morning. I don't have a rooster, so that isn't a problem for me. It was too confusing for my girls for it to turn on and then suddenly off at night when they were caught off the roost. I kept finding shocked birds in the nest boxes instead which equaled poopy nesting material. Yuck!

 

[Ridgerunner]

A little more information to help understand the question. Getting them kickstarted is different than getting them to continue laying through the winter. I have a lot less problems with that.

I understand you frustration. I dont provide extra lights. I had a 22 week old pullet lay her first egg three days ago. Days are getting shorter here but not as short as yours. Last winter I had a 9 month old pullet lay her first egg the first week of December. 9 months old and on about the shortest day of the year but with days getting even shorter. That one sure didnt read the rule book but she has been laying great since then and her daughters started laying at a more normal time, around 20 weeks.

Adding more light should help get them started. Id still look at what is most convenient to you as to when to add it; morning, night, or both. Remember that daylight is coming later and dark is coming earlier until the Christmas season. If you check them out, youll see that latest daylight and earliest dark are not on the same day. I know all kinds of worthless trivia.

I dont know if it makes a difference. You can try adding it all at the same time or maybe add an hour, wait two days, add an hour, wait two days, and such until you get to where you want to be.

Personally Id shoot for 12 hours a day, not 14. 12 will be plenty since it is days getting longer that simulate spring, not the actual length of the day. After all, chickens close enough to the equator never see 14 hours a day and still go through the same cycles. At some point you are going to want to stop spending money to keep that light bulb lit. If there is less than 14 hours a day when you do that, you may send them into a mini-molt where they stop or really cut back on production for a bit.

 

[lesa]

Oh dear! Darn chickens! I presume you have got them on layer pellets? Are you sure they aren't hiding the eggs somewhere? I remember one year I was waiting and waiting- and I found out the girls were jumping the fence and laying in the garden... 17 eggs in the nest! Hang in there- I am sure there are eggs in your future.

 

[Smart Red]

I add time to their morning. When I first got chickens in the coop I tried splitting the time between morning and night. I quickly noticed the girls floundering around looking for a roost with the light suddenly gone, so I added 15 minutes of a heat lamp (red light) as a warning to allow them to find their roosts. Having the light go on in the early morning makes it easier for me and the chickens since I get to shut them in earlier in the evening. I just have to make sure there is plenty of feed and water for that early morning period. Some people put the feed away to protect it from vermin over night, but having the girls get up early means either I go out in the dark or the food stays. The food stays.

 

[thistlebloom]

Oh dear! Darn chickens! I presume you have got them on layer pellets? Are you sure they aren't hiding the eggs somewhere? I remember one year I was waiting and waiting- and I found out the girls were jumping the fence and laying in the garden... 17 eggs in the nest! Hang in there- I am sure there are eggs in your future.

Oh, yeah, definitely getting a good quality lay pellet, some BOSS and very minimal scratch. Just enough to train them to come to " Here chickchickchick!" They also are getting to get out in the yard early evening to goof off. I have looked for other nest areas and even crawled under the coop, ( an experience like no other ) , and there are no sneaky eggs anywhere.

Since they are Wyandottes I did a little reading and most folks say 7 - 9 months before they lay is not unusual. So they have a little grace period. A TINY grace period. And then they get the bedtime story treatment. That's when I haul a stool and a cookbook out there and read some delicious chicken recipes to them.

One of these birds is a Brown Leghorn who the breeder said, "Oh, just look at the color of her comb! She'll be laying any minute now!"
That was in July.

I set the timer up today to turn the light on in the morning, I think that will work best for all of us. Got a flock block in there and made them an auto feeder from some pvc pipe so they have something to do besides pester each other in the wee hours.

 

[Fred]

We add lights to get a more consistant egg yield throughout the winter.

Morning and evening.

Hens don't have to be 'caught in the dark' when evening lights go off,
or 'suddenly awakened' when morning lights come on.

You just need 2 timers and 2 light fixtures.

One light fixture will have a 5 to 10 watt bulb, the other has 60 to 75 watt bulb.

One timer is for dim lights, and the other for main lights.

- Set up for morning so the dim light turns on 15 min before the main light
turns on, and shuts off 15 min after main light turns on.

- Set up for evening so the dim light comes on 15 min before the main light shuts off, and shuts off 15 min after the main light shuts off.

This eliminates the steep drop in winter egg production, and the stress of abrupt light changes.

Fred

 

[catjac1975]

The hens will roost all night regardless of the light. I don't understand the worry of when it turns off.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you look through this, youll find a few things that an incorrect lighting program can case. Blood spots and body check eggs are a couple but there are more in the shell defects section. They need their dark downtime to keep their body functioning right.

Egg Quality Handbook
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/ourbooks/1/egg-quality-handbook/

 

[baymule]

I have Wyandottes too! Love em. I have silver laced and blue laced red. The SLW's are 10 months old and started laying last month. They are still laying little pullet eggs, so I boiled up 18 of them last night and made pickled eggs. Since the SLW's just started laying, I figure they will lay through the winter. I also have 6 Red Stars that are 9 months old and they are laying machines-don't know what they will do this winter. Last year I put a light in the coop, but only after the hens had a chance to molt. I gave them extra protein and a few of them kept laying so that I never totally ran out of eggs. I gave them 2 months to molt, then the light went on, in the AM. A few weeks later, they were laying again.