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

[Smart Red]

The eggs are starting to trickle in! The brown Leghorn has laid two eggs, on consecutive days, ( and apparently she's exhausted already because she has taken about 4 days off ) one of the young Black laced Red Wyandottes laid one yesterday, and my old Golden Sebright laid one today. I can't wait to be buried in eggs!

Of the five eggs that were hatched here, four were roosters. Three have been invited to dinner already. The youngest roo will be soon. Our son was saying how delicious Thing 1 looked scratching in the back yard. Anyway, Thing 2 (hatchling with Thing 1, the roo) has started laying. She looks all Australorp, but I know she has some light Brahma and perhaps something else, but she is laying almost a bantam-sized chocolate egg. Really cute, but I prefer bigger. Even my smallest chicken, an Easter Egger named Egglet, lays larger eggs than these. I am hoping it is just a fluke with her getting started with this laying idea otherwise, Thing 2 may hit the dinner table early as early as her brother.

Sorry, thistlebloom! That happens. This summer I found a large collection of eggs hidden in my garden shed. I ended up scrambling them all and feeding them back to the chickens as I wasn't about to risk cracking a half-grown chick into the breakfast pancake batter.

 

[bugkiller]

I add light in mine both am and pm. I have it come on at 6 and off at 8 am than on at 7 pm and off at 10, my red sex links only miss about 1 or 2 days a month year round with this method. this is only during winter in short days. as soon as daylight savings comes I turn light off completely.

 

[journey11]

Can't believe they were hoarding them away from you. How funny! Glad the mystery has been solved and you can get back to your breakfast now.

 

[so lucky]

Yesterday when I gave the chicken coop a haphazard cleaning, I discovered two broken eggs amongst the poop under the big girls' roost. Good News: Scarlet is laying again. Bad News: She's still laying from the roost.

 

[ducks4you]

Your hens need about 13 hours of light/day to mimic enough day time to lay.

 

[catjac1975]

The professional farms give their birds 17 hours of light a day. I finally got my light set up for my hens. I have been hardly getting even an egg a day. My timer is not working so I need to get another one. I give my young birds a 100 watt incandescent bulb to keep warm. I have noticed that these bulbs do not last very long any more. Has anyone else noticed this? Is this another poor product coming from China?

 

[so lucky]

The professional farms give their birds 17 hours of light a day. I finally got my light set up for my hens. I have been hardly getting even an egg a day. My timer is not working so I need to get another one. I give my young birds a 100 watt incandescent bulb to keep warm. I have noticed that these bulbs do not last very long any more. Has anyone else noticed this? Is this another poor product coming from China?

Probably. But I notice the fluorescent ones don't last very long either. What happened to the "lasts 5 years" propaganda?

 

[catjac1975]

Do you think is is from the cold? The florescent energy savers contain Mercury and several of mine have broken in the hen house!

 

[so lucky]

Maybe someone who knows the answer will chime in here. I sure don't know if the cold hurts them or not.

 

[baymule]

Put a heat lamp on your lights.