Hen house lighting

[tea-shot]

Don't know if this is in the right slot but I was wondering if anyone out there had fitted lighting inside their hen house to help with winter egg production? We're not trying to start a battery farm but any improvement on two to three eggs a week from 6 hens would be a bonus. We don't have a source of electricity on site so it would be down to solar power or a giant battery

[Chantal]

This was discussed recently

viewtopic.php?t=2586

and I think the concensus was that it's best to let chickens have a rest during the winter. I certainly don't light my chicken shed and don't intend to.

[tea-shot]

Have checked out the link and I agree with Chantal. I only asked because one of the other plot holders was talking about the same thing so we thought it was the right thing to do.

[Tigger]

As hens have a definitive amount of eggs in their system, using light only shortens their life. You'll get the same amount of eggs ultimately, although they may cost you a few pence more.

[vivie veg]

Hi teashoot,

As the nights are getting shorter the hens will start to pick up anyway and you have plenty of time to decide whether you want to make the investment before next autumn.

As mentioned in the previous link I do have a lighting system, but currently only the one battery. This is inadequate as it takes more a day to charge up properly, so the ducks have a night without light, so I'll have to get two.

Solar panels would also need a battery to save the energy generated during the day for use at night, I don't know if it would generate enough during a miserable cloudy day in December to give a sufficient length of light.

A friend was telling me that he used to use just one night candle lite when he put the chickens away at night and this was enough for an ark with half a dozen chickens. I would think you would need to make sure it was in a safe housing to stop fires.....persaonally I would not try it

[John]

Hello Tea-shot
I agree with the others and as I said in the previous time this topic came up, its far better to give your girls a good rest in the winter. They can then build up their strength to reward you with a regular supply of eggs in the spring and summer. We are not like the awful commercial outfits that have to force everything out of their birds in their first laying cycle so that they can then discard them.
One way of tackling this problem of few or no eggs in the winter is to have several different types of birds in your flock. I've found over the years that each breed or hybrid has its own cycle of things and some will lay into the winter or others will start earlier. It doesn't solve the problem but does help to spread the egg-laying out a bit more through the year. I have three Norfolk Greys in my flock at the moment and these lay quite well in the winter. However this breed is hard to get hold of. Also my White Star has just come back into lay - she lays lovely big pure white eggs.
So when the time come to replace some of your birds you could try a different type to get a mix of birds in your flock.

John

[Allan]

Whatever you do don't fall for these shed lights or anything similar running from solar power. The amount of light is nothing like what you would need to be useful in a shed, more like using a hand torch if that.
Regarding the panels on the market, some I bought didn't last through one winter, at £100 that's too expensive.

[alan refail]

tea shot

If your 6 hens are not too old they will come back on lay soon enough. I have a mixture of pure breeds, and home hatched birds. They all have different rest periods. Now the days are longer even some of my old Leghorns which like a break of at least 4 months are laying.
I would never consider any form of lighting.

Be patient

Alan

[tea-shot]

Thanks to all - we are off to the local free-range egg producers at the end of this month when we've been told that we can get hens for £1 each. Don't know what breeds they are or what state they are in, but have high hopes from what we saw before Christmas. Will see if we can get different breeds then. Once again thanks for all your advice

[Alison]

Our hens are laying all over the place (never in the nest-boxes) and we have started to find their sites. Yesterday, Brian came in with 13 eggs, and our egg boxes are filling up rapidly.
I have read that you can keep eggs with isinglass. I know our supply will fall off as all of them go broody in the spring, and suddenly There Will Be None, so has anyone tried isinglass, how do you use it, does it affect the taste of eggs, and are they just the same as fresh eggs, e.g. can you scramble them, separate them etc?
Grateful for any info.
Alison.

[alan refail]

Alison

All I recall about isinglass is that when I was very young (wartime) our eggs were preserved in a large enamel bucket of the stuff. They were foul to eat
Just consulted my wife who had the same experience, and she remembers the resulting eggs being "chalky".
Her advice is to use found eggs for something that does not need very fresh eggs.
If your hens are "laying away" and you remove the eggs they often just go somewhere else you don't find for a while - they can be devious little b*****s A good ploy is to leave an egg or two (marked) so they think the nest is still a good laying place.

By the way, Wikipedia tells me this:

Isinglass is a substance obtained from the swimbladders of fish (especially Beluga sturgeon)

However what was used was waterglass (also known, confusingly, as isinglass) sodium silicate.

If you're still tempted, have look at

http://www.poultry.allotment.org.uk/Chi ... /index.php

Alan