Should you use lighting in your chicken coop? Is it worth it to YOU?

[@judywiggins5092]

I let my girls rest for the coldest months. (Tennessee gal here) I've never had to buy eggs in all the years of raising chickens either. When they produce extra I freeze my eggs in silicon cubes for baking and scrambling in the slack months. And even fix them a few for a little extra protein. I also donate plenty of eggs to my church family.

[@chickensinmygarden]

That sounds wonderful. Best wishes to you and your chickens in Tennessee 🙂

[@hobbydigger]

I love your videos 😊

[@chickensinmygarden]

Thank you so much 🙂

[@dianethomas9594]

I have learned so much about my chickens from you. We changed out our lighting after watching your last video. This current video “Should You” gives me food for thought. Thanks so much for producing such great videos for the chicken tenders of the world. Diane in Oregon

[@chickensinmygarden]

Hi Diane. Thank you for your comment. I don't currently have lighting because I don't have electricity at my coop but I am toying with the idea of adding it for just a few weeks next Spring. We are here in early Summer now, so I have plenty of time to work out whether I really will. It might depend on how many eggs are still in storage at the end of next winter 😀

[@MaisieTheBlindHen]

Great info, great video! 🩷🥰🩷🥰‼️🩷💕🩷💕happy new week my friend!!🩷🫶🫶🩷🫶🙏🐔🩷💕🩷☺️☺️🩷

[@chickensinmygarden]

Thank you. I hope you and your flock have a wonderful week 🙂

[@vickyannpaintingwithoils]

Thank you for addressing how chickens have as many eggs inside them as they will ever lay. I heard that once but never really knew how many that might be. The only thing I am putting an outlet near my coop for is the water drinker heater and the cozy coop heat screen I only use during emergency times when we are well below negative. Last year we had a - 17 with windchill for a weekend. They have to stand next to it to get warm and it can't catch on fire. Real lightbulbs would make me nervous. The battery lanterns are more my comfort level for them. Great video as always! Happy Chickening :)

[@chickensinmygarden]

Thank you 🙂 I agree, safety is always imperative. We are coming into summer now so it's quite a while before I need to think about this again. At the moment my ladies are being super-generous with their egg gifts for me 🙂

[@vickyannpaintingwithoils]

@@chickensinmygarden Enjoy your warm months! Good little girls keeping you in eggs. ;)

[@matiulmanan3929]

Which chicken breed is best for eggs

[@chickensinmygarden]

That depends a lot on what strains of birds are available to you in your country. For example in some countries the Araucana are known as great layers but here in New Zealand the Araucanas have been bred only for looks and egg colour and they are very poor layers. So I can't give you an answer that will be true of the breeds all over the world. There are plenty of Internet sites that will give you a list of good layers but I have found that none of them are true for New Zealand chickens, and you might find those lists are not true for you either. It's best to ask around locally about the birds that you can get. But good breeds to ask about are Leghorns and Australorp. But by far the best for egg laying are the commercial hybrids. Find out where the commercial egg farmers get their hens - you might be able to get some of those. Check out my video about heritage and hybrid chickens kzbin.info/www/bejne/a6m6q5V5bNJ1gsUsi=FfICLQExx_WvoKB9

[@katemiller6567]

Couple years back started my flock watching your videos...wonderful advice, thank you so much! My girls are spectacular, love every one of em, all seven. Did the unthinkable and named each one. I'll keep them as long as the Lord allows, eggs or not. Did put a "cozy coop" heater in for the cold snap we have each year here in Michigan. Last year my Leghorn (Biggie) got a touch of frostbite on the tip of her comb. A few centimeters and she didn't lose any, but felt terrible...hence the cozy coop heater. It uses ambient heat and only comes on when the temperature is freezing inside the coop. Was afraid to keep it too warm because I didn't want to lose any of them if we had a power outage, and I hear that's a possibility if the chickens are not used to the cold at all. Was lavish and put an old porch swing in the run so I could sit with my girls in the evening during the summer. Chickens are highly underrated as pets. :) Thanks again for all your hard work putting out these videos; I think they are truly useful and pleasant to watch. God bless!

[@chickensinmygarden]

Thank you so much for that. You are quite right - chickens are underrated. I think it's because humans eat chicken meat. I have named all my chickens except those I sold at just a few days old. And I think there have been over 100 of them - I must count them up one day. Currently I have 6, which is a good number for the space I have for them. But that doesn't stop me looking at what fertile eggs are available to hatch some more 😀

[@colleengood6365]

We have electricity in both of our coops. In the heat of the summer we run fans at night. I also have black heat lamps if it's frigid. Years ago I tried a light and my girls refused to go in at night! Lol! So I gave up after 2 nights! Sadly, last week I lost my Dominique (also her name). She was 10 years, and 5 months old. She was so sweet!

[@chickensinmygarden]

Ten years is a grand old age! I know you will miss her very much 😘

[@pseudopetrus]

I don't push my pullets with light, if they are stimulated to lay early they stop growing, they stop growing when they begin to lay. I want size, not eggs, so I hold off on the light for my pullets until they naturally mature.

[@chickensinmygarden]

And over the long term those big healthy pullets grow into big healthy long-lived hens who probably lay more eggs anyway 🙂

[@juliasgarden6968]

Thank you for the thorough video. I've read somewhere that chickens need more than 12 hours a day to lay and that 15 hours of light in the winter is the optimal hours to get them to lay the most, researched in a commercial setting. So I'm giving them just 13 hours of light a day this winter and will see how it goes. 2 hours before the sunrise and 1 hour after the sunset is more manageable for me in case of power outage which happens a few times in the winter here.

[@chickensinmygarden]

Thank you. Yes that's right - 12 hours is the minimum. If you haven't seen it, check out my previous video which covers some of the practicalities about timing kzbin.info/www/bejne/qJq9q3ahm5yLgpo

[@ScaryFear]

Thanks for another great video. I'm in central FL so I think our winters are acceptable for light. Most of my hens are off lay right now as it's our Fall. Lots of molting going on. But my girls that hatched in April are just starting to lay eggs. So I'm getting 1 to 2 eggs a day over here. I'm looking forward to spring to see what it will be like when everyone is finally consistently laying. It's my first year of roosters too. A lot of chicken firsts for me this year.

[@chickensinmygarden]

That sounds perfect 🙂 Best wishes with your roosters. Now I live in town I am no longer allowed roosters because some people don't like the crowing but I love it. Every individual seems to have his own voice and song.

[@ScaryFear]

@@chickensinmygarden Aww too bad about that. You're right! My Black Copper Marans is named Starbuck and he has a deep voice. He does not sound like a rooster at all. I just love it. My Swedish Flower Hen Rooster has the typical voice.

[@chickensinmygarden]

Somehow Starbuck seems like a superb name for a rooster 🙂

[@ScaryFear]

@@chickensinmygarden Thank you. Most of my original flock was named after characters from Moby Dick. I also have an Ahab and an Ismael but they are hens.

[@loa81]

Hi! Nice to watch and read your en-light-ening videos again! I really enjoy all the response comments, too. Here’s my experience and egg-ucation bits gleaned over the years…. 1. Avoid artificial light to extend the laying hours. In Northern Maine summers the daylight is very long. I had hens sometimes laying twice a day. 2. In winter months it was sometimes necessary to have artificial light to gather eggs, feed, and water. Daylight hours are drastically reduced in winter only lasting a few hours. It is their time to rest and re-coop for spring. 3. Coops, which are solidly made and insulated, do not need additional heating. We had close to -40 F. mean temp wind chills to -80 F. often in the winter. My coop was built for summer cool and winter without drafts. I used clear heavy-duty plastic to cut drafts. The coop I built tall. Onset of winter plastic cut off the upper roosts decreasing the space to keep warm. The clear plastic contributed extra passive solar warmth. We NEVER had a bit of frostbite on toes or combs or frozen eggs either. 4. Artificially extending the day for more eggs is cruel for the precious hens. It’s kinda like Alien vs. Predator zapping the queen Alien to lay enough eggs to have enough Predator prey to hunt. Going to bed with the chickens is not such a bad idea! When the rooster decides it is time to roost he has a soft call similar to his louder feed call. Instead of the higher pitch at the end his pitch drops lower- more calming. The girls go to roost and they have their own chicken lullaby coos. I wonder who leads the roost call in an all hen flock. It must be the dominate hen. Well, Young Lady, this Old Woman is headed for her roost. My rooster gently calls.

[@chickensinmygarden]

Thank you so much for sharing 🙂 May you and your flock have a peaceful evening

[@CSWRB]

It’s not cruel to add supplemental lights, especially if you do it in an informed way. Your alien vs predator comparison was hysterical. LOL! You’d probably be singing a different tune if you lived somewhere that only had enough natural lights for chickens to lay a measly 3 months out of 12. Quit shaming people about supplemental lights, many are not as privileged as you to be able to feed chickens all year and only get eggs for a few months.

[@loa81]

@CSWRB Thank you for your feedback! It was not really my intention to shame anyone. I have had chickens in Northern Maine. Our winter days were often very short & known to be cloudy. Sorry about shaming anyone. My bad. Summertime was almost daylight 25 hrs. My poor girls sometimes laid two eggs a day! I'm glad you found the alien vs. predator entertaining. I'd rather give a smile than be overly critical. All the best!