Best Light To Keep Chickens Laying

Once daylight hours reach 14 hours per day chickens begin to make more hormones that stimulate egg production.

Best light to keep chickens laying.

Hens for example that are kept under natural daylight hours will lay the majority of their eggs during the spring and summer months. 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. How many hours of light do chickens need to lay eggs. Any ideas or is.

Most pure breeds will stop laying during the winter months but good utility strains and hybrids may continue to lay at a lower rate. This peaks when there are 16 hours of daylight each day as this is usually the ideal time to lay eggs for hatching chicks. 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. Light is what signals a chicken to lay eggs.

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. 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. They are free range most of the time and fed layers pellets. 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.

The hybrid lays like clockwork but the bantams having been good layers have now stopped laying completely. Red light is more soothing for a chicken and helps allow them to sleep. A rtificial lighting can keep your chickens laying as daylight hours fall and as most of us know egg production from all birds is linked to changing patterns of daylight. The idea is that the subtle light of a red bulb helps to keep your girls calm.

In general it is advised to use red light but there are arguments that either work. Many chicken experts have found that red lights are the best way to light a chicken coop. Keep in mind that hens do.