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Light for hens

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  • 09-10-2008 7:49pm
    #1
    Yorky
    Registered Users Posts: 1,485 ✭✭✭


    In winter hens lay more eggs if exposed to extra light in the form of a light in the coop. Does anyone know what the optimum amount of light for pullets (approx.18 weeks old) per day is?

    Also, to provide this light will involve plugging a flex into an external socket and then attaching a bulb holder to the end of it. Does the flex need to be earthed or just live and neutrel?

    Thanks in advance.


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    #2
    The Sweeper
    Registered Users Posts: 10,658 ✭✭✭✭The Sweeper


    When I was doing my chicken research I got a statistic that said they needed 14 hours of light a day to lay. Doesn't need to be bright light, just enough that you could read a newspaper by, for instance.

    Is this your home flock? I ask because while I could argue that intensive egg production is unnatural, the strains we have bred into the chicken world are also unnatural and are capable of very high egg production. I also ask because if you have a home outdoor/indoor flock with an enclosed run and a chicken coop, they may go off the lay anyway in winter, lightbulb inside or no, because the weather and conditions outside are so crap.

    If you want your chickens to lay to the best of their ability year-round, they need the right balance of protein in their diet. Battery chickens are high-yield because they're only used as layers for 12 months after they start laying (older chickens are less productive), and also because they've never known anything other than the battery environment. Chickens who are used to a happier life can also be stressed more easily than battery chickens - plenty of people who've suffered a fox attack on their henhouse will tell you their surviving flock isn't the same for weeks afterwards.

    So if you've got an indoor-outdoor home flock and you want eggs through the winter, they need clean water, clean, warm bedding, a draft and rain-proof henhouse, proper food and appropriate anti-parasitic medications or natural remedies to ensure they're comfortable, along with your lightbulb on a timer in their henhouse. Even then I reckon you'll STILL see some fall-off in egg production.


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