First night of 13-14 hour "day" light...

[Ted Brown]

Have you considered turning the lights off after daylight?

Lights are on a timer, on at 3am off at 7:30am.

After daybreak the flock goes out and stays in the run. Issue is them inside before daybreak.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

These cold temps before dawn are why I add supplemental light at the end of the day. Tends to be warmer in the evening. Admittedly, my temps are not as cold as yours.

 

[Ted Brown]

These cold temps before dawn are why I add supplemental light at the end of the day. Tends to be warmer in the evening. Admittedly, my temps are not as cold as yours.

The issue with end of day that swayed me to morning was lights going at the end of the 14 hours and chickens getting "stranded" off the roosts.

In my direct experience cold temperatures do not impact laying, supplemental lighting does. Last week temperature here were around -30C/-22F. Egg laying remained 10-12 eggs/day.

 

[SourRoses]

We have our lights set to come on in the evening, and no issues with stranding.
But I deliberately chose the lowest light level and a very yellow shade, both are calming. The studied light level needed to induce lay is 1 candle (per sq ft? or 10 sq ft? I can't recall).
Equivalent to a full moon night.
Our roosters crow when our porch light is on, so I really didn't want the coop light to encourage them in the early morning hours.

Originally I set ours for 2 hours on the timer, but the darkness sensor was having them come on an hour before dark so I increased it to 4. So functionally that's 3 extra hours, lol.
And the solar lights I got from AMZN were only $22.
Currently at 8 eggs a day, mostly new pullets. I really want eggs from one of our 2 year olds for breeding purposes but she's reluctant to get going.
Now I need a nest box camera to figure out which of these pullets is laying which blue/ green egg. I wish those came as cheap!

 

[Ted Brown]

@SourRoses very useful information, thank you.

As I described, actually buying bits and installing was a challenge. I live remotely so everything is order online or trip to the nearest town.

I spent little time on research re timing, went with what was commonly stated on BYC.

My pullets and hens were a mixed bag in terms of laying, most were at least 3 weeks but some of the older ones are still not laying. I also have heritage birds for the most part so expect one egg every couple of days. As you say, hard to keep track of; that I have gone from almost none for months to 10-13 per day satisfies me at the moment.

I recently went to all hens in the coop, no roosters. Changed the tempo radically for the better. I do have roos for breeding purposes but they are in separate cages.Too many so I have a culling chore ahead.

Thanks for your input!

 

[jreardon1918]

I am in Southeast Mass. I start my lighting program tomorrow. I use Christmas Icicle lights in the run. The coop faces east. The roosts face east and south in the shape of an "L". I have 11 hens ages 18 months to 4 years. The last egg was almost 3 weeks ago. The molt is over. Not many red combs. The lights will turn on at 4:30 AM That is about 2.5 hours of extra light per day. I am hoping to start getting eggs again by the 3rd week of January. Fingers crossed. I past years I think this general schedule has worked.

An update on my lighting program. I started the lights on 12/26. Got my first egg 1/13. My lights currently come on @ 3:20 AM. That adds 2 1/2 hours of light for a total of 14 hours. We are now gaining 3 minutes per day of light. The first egg came 1/13. We are up to 64 as of yesterday. 4-6 per day.

For the suplemental lighting veterans. I plan to start setting the lights to come on roughly two minutes later each day. Does that make sense. I have

@SourRoses very useful information, thank you.

As I described, actually buying bits and installing was a challenge. I live remotely so everything is order online or trip to the nearest town.

I spent little time on research re timing, went with what was commonly stated on BYC.

My pullets and hens were a mixed bag in terms of laying, most were at least 3 weeks but some of the older ones are still not laying. I also have heritage birds for the most part so expect one egg every couple of days. As you say, hard to keep track of; that I have gone from almost none for months to 10-13 per day satisfies me at the moment.

I recently went to all hens in the coop, no roosters. Changed the tempo radically for the better. I do have roos for breeding purposes but they are in separate cages.Too many so I have a culling chore ahead.

Thanks for your input!

I have a question about how to go about reducing the supllemental light.

An update on my lighting program. I started the lights on 12/26. Got my first egg 1/13. My lights currently come on @ 3:20 AM. That adds 2 1/2 hours of light for a total of 14 hours. We are now gaining 3 minutes per day of light. The first egg came 1/13. We are up to 64 as of yesterday. 4-6 per day. Last year they averaged 7 a day. So close to normal considering they are another year older.

My question does it makes sense to start changing the light on time by a few minutes each day now or soon? In the past I didn't consider how to systematically do this.

Jack

 

[Ted Brown]

...
My question does it makes sense to start changing the light on time by a few minutes each day now or soon? In the past I didn't consider how to systematically do this.

Jack

[ @aart ]

I am in my 1st Spring with supplemental lighting. You were far more sensitive to your birds than I; one day mine got backed up 4 hours.

Sun is earlier and earlier here as well, will change timer next few days, adjust both on & off to maintain 14 hours (expect to do this 2/3 times before off completely).

 

[Ted Brown]

Ted,
My lights are actually in the run. Some are right up against the east facing windows. When the lights come on, they fairly quickly leave the coop and go out to the run. I had planned to add a string of lights inside the coop this year, but did not get around to it.
Jack

I moved the supplemental LED 4' from the coop to the run, mimicked Jack's setup. Very happy with the light cast.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I moved the supplemental LED 4' from the coop to the run, mimicked Jack's setup. Very happy with the light cast.

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Ted, these lights are outside?

 

[Ted Brown]

Ted, these lights are outside?

They are attached to the outside coop wall in the run area, however run has a metal roof, tarped on the back north side and clear plastic on the front.

I hung the light at the top of window and down enough so that LEDs also light the inside of the coop. I checked this morning before daybreak, setup is working with most birds in the run and some in the coop. There is less light inside, possible impact on laying times?

To remind, I moved the light outside to get the waste load outside. At the beginning the extra hours inside made a BIG difference that I still have to clean out before it thaws.