Who has light/nightlight in coop?

[bamafan87]

I have the problem of my chickens wanting to sleep right at the door of th coop and hang there heads out when they go in before I can go plug the light up. When I plug the light up the (most of the time) get up and move on into the coop onto roosts etc. Sometimes ai turn the light on and they still want to lay right at the door. I put a 15 watt light in the coop. Does anyone else have a light? Any suggstions?

 

[destinidawn]

I still have my heat lamp hanging in my coop.. I turn it on about 30 minutes before I want to close the coop up. Not because my chickens need to be warm but they come in the coop. They eat and drink and get settled on the roosts. Before I was doing that they all huddled at the little chicken door trying to get to the one little exposed 2x4 thats 6 inches long to try to sleep on.. All 8 of them would pile on top of each other trying to be as close to that 2x4 as possible.. Silly birds. We are going to run electricity to the coop so we will just hang a light in there to get them in at night. They dont see well in the dark from what I read.

 

[ScottM]

Huh? They should sleep in the dark. You won't see a wild bird to use a nightlight in a tree, but seriously you will goof up their circadian rhythm.

If you want a light, put it on a timer to run from 6am-dawn and then dusk -8pm, and please secure it in two places so not to start a fire

/scott

 

[destinidawn]

I guess I should have posted that once they are all in I shut it off LOL. I know they sleep in the dark. It just helps them go all the way into the coop instead of by the door

 

[bamafan87]

Huh? They should sleep in the dark. You won't see a wild bird to use a nightlight in a tree, but seriously you will goof up their circadian rhythm.
If you want a light, put it on a timer to run from 6am-dawn and then dusk -8pm, and please secure it in two places so not to start a fire
/scott

well it is the only way to get them to go into the coop! Im not using the heat lamp anymore I just put one of those little led night lights that you can get to put in like the hallway in your house, nothing bright.

 

[bamafan87]

I still have my heat lamp hanging in my coop.. I turn it on about 30 minutes before I want to close the coop up. Not because my chickens need to be warm but they come in the coop. They eat and drink and get settled on the roosts. Before I was doing that they all huddled at the little chicken door trying to get to the one little exposed 2x4 thats 6 inches long to try to sleep on.. All 8 of them would pile on top of each other trying to be as close to that 2x4 as possible.. Silly birds. We are going to run electricity to the coop so we will just hang a light in there to get them in at night. They dont see well in the dark from what I read. :

One time I turned the light on and they went all the way in and then they came back to the door so I cut the light off and they went all the way back in. This only happened once! It's all just so crazy! I also read somewhere on here that chickens can't see in the dark like cats/dogs etc. so IDK!!!

 

[Imp]

I have a light in the coop. Have had it for years. It is a 13watt cfb.
It has never caused trouble for the chickens- they sleep, eat, and do the rest of their chicken things.

Imp

 

[bamafan87]

I have a light in the coop. Have had it for years. It is a 13watt cfb.
It has never caused trouble for the chickens- they sleep, eat, and do the rest of their chicken things.

Imp

so far it hasn't seemed to have bothered mine either, of course they are only roughly 7 weeks old!

 

[minister man]

I have a light in my coop on a timer, and I find that it works best to add all the extra daylight on the morning and turn off when the sun comes up. That way they get the full day lenght and get to go to be naturally with the sun going down.

 

[Paul 1952]

We did have a light in the tractor/coop when we first put them out there at about 6 weeks... and did notice that they wouldn't go back up into the coop unless the light was on... so let them have their way for a few days, turning the light off once they were in and locked up. After a couple of three days I noticed that they'd go up without the light, as we'd turn it off during the day and all... so, no light any longer. They're about 10 or so weeks now and they go up into the coop to roost and we lock 'em in every night... during the winter I'll probably run a light during the day to give them that daylight feel but that's about it.
In a perfect world that light would be a solar LED deal that could be set on a timer ... I'd better start looking! ;-)