Best Light To Keep Chickens Laying

Any ideas or is.

Best light to keep chickens laying.

Artificial light a 40 watt bulb suspended about 7 feet off the floor will provide enough light intensity to substitute for daylight in a small chicken coop of roughly 100 square feet 10 feet by 10 feet or so. One way to combat this lack of sunlight in the colder months of the year is to add a light on a timer in the coop to trick the chicken s pituitary gland and help ramp up normal egg production again. Light is what signals a chicken to lay eggs. Most pure breeds will stop laying during the winter months but good utility strains and hybrids may continue to lay at a lower rate.

Chickens need twelve to fourteen hours of daylight to keep production running and the only way to provide this daylight during the winter is to use artificial lighting. I live in the uk have 3 chickens one hybrid given to me by a friend when they couldn t keep her anymore and two bantams. Once daylight hours reach 14 hours per day chickens begin to make more hormones that stimulate egg production. They are free range most of the time and fed layers pellets.

Hens for example that are kept under natural daylight hours will lay the majority of their eggs during the spring and summer months. Hens need at least 12 hours of daylight per day to lay eggs whereas 14 to 16 hours of sunlight per day will keep them performing at their full potential. Hens lay when they have daylight for at least 12 14 hours per day and egg production drops off significantly and may even stop once days are shorter than this. The hybrid lays like clockwork but the bantams having been good layers have now stopped laying completely.

As you could imagine chickens probably won t want a bright white light shining on them especially if you are leaving it on all day night. The idea is that the subtle light of a red bulb helps to keep your girls calm. Many chicken experts have found that red lights are the best way to light a chicken coop. This peaks when there are 16 hours of daylight each day as this is usually the ideal time to lay eggs for hatching chicks.

Keep in mind that hens do. Chickens need 14 16 hours of light per day to continue laying eggs for you. How many hours of light do chickens need to lay eggs.