What’s the Best Chicken Coop Light?

Are your chickens not laying in winter? What type of light is best for supplementation?

What’s the Best Chicken Coop Light?

Reading Time: 5 minutes

When we supplement light to our chickens in winter, does it matter what type of bulb we use? Between incandescent, fluorescent, and LED bulbs, there are benefits and drawbacks to each chicken coop light, but do the chickens have a preference? How should that light be set up?

Chickens are very sensitive to light. In addition to perceiving light through their eyes, they also have a photoreceptor in their hypothalamus gland which perceives light through the thinner parts of a chicken’s skull (Jácome, Rossi, & Borille, 2014). Light is what signals a chicken to lay eggs. Once daylight hours reach 14 hours per day, chickens begin to make more hormones that stimulate egg production. This peaks when there are 16 hours of daylight each day as this is usually the ideal time to lay eggs for hatching chicks. Those chicks can then grow throughout the summer and be strong before winter. Many modern breeds have been developed to continue producing high numbers of eggs throughout the winter, but most traditional breeds will take a couple of days to absorb enough sunlight to stimulate the production of an egg in the darkness of wintertime. Fortunately, with the luxuries of electricity, we can provide artificial light to stimulate the chickens and keep them producing well even through the winter.

Type of Light

Large poultry operations sometimes participate in studies to determine how to maximize their egg output while keeping their chickens healthy. Most studies that have been done recently compare LED to fluorescent lighting. They don’t compare incandescent because the large operations rarely use that form of light. Incandescent costs too much in comparison for them to care whether there is a slight difference in egg-laying potential. What these studies between LED (light-emitting diode) and fluorescent lights show is that there is little if any difference in egg output when comparing lights of the same color spectrum (Long, Yang, Wang, Xin, & Ning, 2014). One study found that hens under LED lights were a little more prone to feather pecking, while another found that chickens were calmer under LED lights. The hypothesis behind this increased calm is that because chickens have such sensitivity to light, the slight flickering of fluorescent bulbs may have been irritating to them. Fluorescent lights may not hold up to the dust of a chicken coop as well as LED bulbs. While LEDs are more expensive, they last a very long time and can significantly lower your electric costs. Both fluorescent and LED also don’t produce the heat that traditional incandescent bulbs do. While you may want to give your girls a little more warmth in the wintertime, doing so is a huge fire hazard.

chicken-coop-light

Color of Light

Some very interesting studies used LED lights to compare a laying hen’s response to monochromatic light, that is, a single color. The “white” light that we perceive from the sun and attempt to mimic in our light bulbs is actually all the colors together. With LED lights set to green, red, blue, or white in different hen houses, the scientists took careful measurements of egg size, shape, aspects of nutritional value, and output. It was found that the hens under only green light produced more sturdy eggshells. Hens under blue light produced progressively rounder eggs. The group in the white light produced the largest eggs in comparison, and the group in red light produced smaller eggs, but in greater yield. There were no significant differences in nutritional aspects of the eggs (Chen, Er, Wang, & Cao, 2007). Other studies have shown that when light is supplemented to chickens, it must be in the “warm” spectrum and include at least equal red in proportion to the other colors, if not more (Baxter, Joseph, Osborne, & Bédécarrats, 2014). No “cool white” lights for your girls!

Know how long the light needs to be on to reach a maximum total of 16 hours of supplemented and natural light combined. Giving more than 16 hours of light in a day will actually decrease production.

How to Implement

Before you supplement light for your chickens, research when your area receives 16 hours of sunlight per day, and when that begins to decline. Know how long the light needs to be on to reach a maximum total of 16 hours of supplemented and natural light combined. This will change throughout the autumn, winter, and into next spring. Giving more than 16 hours of light in a day will actually decrease production. Second, invest in a timer to be sure that the light is consistent each day. It is best to supplement light in the predawn hours rather than after sunset. Chickens don’t see well in the dark, and if the light suddenly turns off plunging them into complete darkness, they will be unable to find their roost and may panic. If your area is already experiencing less than 16 hours of sunlight, introduce the supplemented light gradually. Also, do not suddenly take away the supplemented light as this can throw your chickens into a molt when the weather is too cold. The light source should be close enough to shine directly on your chickens without being so close that they may accidentally bump it even when excited. It should also be kept far away from any water because a single drop can cause a hot bulb to shatter, endangering your chickens.

Also, do not suddenly take away the supplemented light as this can throw your chickens into a molt when the weather is too cold.

A Reason Not to Supplement

While you may think, “Why wouldn’t I want as many eggs as possible, year-round?” Nature may say otherwise. To everything there is a season, and winter is often a time to rest and recuperate. Chickens that are forced to produce at their maximum potential even through the winter often burn out at a younger age than chickens who are allowed to rest during the natural period. Your chickens will still produce eggs in winter, just not as often. You may come to think of eggs as a seasonal crop, much like most other foods on the homestead.

Although it doesn’t seem to matter to the chickens which type of light bulb we use, they do seem to prefer red light more than others. This should be given in the morning to avoid confusion and panic when the light suddenly turns off at night. But, if you choose not to supplement light during winter, your chickens can enjoy a season of rest before the busy egg-hatching, chick-rearing, lots of foraging summer. Either way, whether or not to supplement light is your choice.

Resources

Baxter, M., Joseph, N., Osborne, R., & Bédécarrats, G. Y. (2014). Red light is necessary to activate the reproductive axis in chickens independently of the retina of the eye. Poultry Science, 1289–1297.

Chen, Y., Er, D., Wang, Z., & Cao, J. (2007). Effect of Monochromatic Light on the Egg Quality of Laying Hens. The Journal of Applied Poultry Research, 605–612.

Jácome, I., Rossi, L., & Borille, R. (2014). Influence of artificial lighting on the performance and egg quality of commercial layers: a review. Brazilian Journal of Poultry Science.

Long, H., Yang, Z., Wang, T., Xin, H., & Ning, Z. (2014). Comparative Evaluation of Light-emitting Diode(LED) vs. Fluorescent (FL) Lighting in Commercial Aviary Hen Houses. Iowa State University Digital Repository.

2 thoughts on “What’s the Best Chicken Coop Light?”
  1. The best light for chickens is no extra lighting. Most likely your hens are molting, usually starting in September they naturally shed old feathers and won’t be laying for up to 3 months. Then you have some breeds that naturally take a break for the colder months, so let them rest. How would you like to give birth 3, 4, up to 7 days a week every week, every month? Let them rest. If you want eggs year round, try getting sexlink pullets in early spring for winter laying, however mine did great the first 2 years and then almost nothing. Sexlink hens due to their higher output only produce consistently for up to 2 years.

    I have 39 hens that have all but up to 4 stopped laying. I currently get 1-4 eggs daily. The majority look awful from molting but many will start back laying between Christmas and New Year’s like each year. I have a mix of sexlinks, Easter Eggers and heritage breeds aged 2 – almost 6. I have 10 pullets that are 5 months old (6 Brahmas, 3 Easter Eggers and a Wyandotte), some should start laying within the next month.

    Even most of my 11 ducks are taking a break laying, getting 1-4 daily.

    Now for those who insist on lighting the coops, use a timer set to come on a couple hours earlier in the morning. Use plastic led bulbs, glass can shatter in colder temperatures causing injuries to feet or by ingesting the glass. Keep all wiring up high and incased where rodents can’t easily get to it or chickens themselves.

    My coops are wired so for the baby monitors in each coop and for using heat bases for waterers or heated water bowls (guineas). The wiring was run underground in waterline pipe, brought in at the metal roof height with outlets hidden behind wall panels. The waterers are in separate alcoves outside the coops but accessible through a “doggie” door and from the outside. Just inspect all wiring several times a year, especially in the fall and winter when rodents are more likely to invade coops.

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