Next chicken question - winter lighting?

[DrDan]

To keep them laying I want to install a poultry timer and a small light in the coop. How long do you set it to be lit up? I imagine you want to simulate summer daylight, but am not sure.

Thanks to all the chicken experts.

Dr Dan

 

[Boondox]

Dan -- I actually got a timer, etc for my coop but never installed it because egg production never dropped off that much. With 21 pullets in summer (before the fox came) I got 18 - 21 eggs a day in the first year. In winter with no supplemental lighting I still got 17 - 19 eggs a day. Maybe that's because we stick with the heavy breeds that winter well: RIRs, Brahmas, etc. The smaller birds seem to have a tough time in arctic conditions.

Pete in northern Vermont

www.GatewayToVermont.com

 

[jimmoore]

Dr Dan, I use a 60 watt bulb for light in my henhouse. To lay best the hens need about 12 hours of light. also attaching a pic of my modified chicken tractor. No wheels, it has handles and we just pick it up and move it once in a while. The larger coop is 12' long with 4' covered and 8' of open run space. it was made by ripping pressure treated 2x4s into 2x2s. I also nailed 2x4 dog wire across the bottom so the critters could not dig under. They have tried but the dog wire kept them from coming up inside. This size coop will accomadate 6 to 8 hens. I drilled holes in the covered side and installed wooden dowels for roosts. You can see them sticking out the sides.

jim

 

[jimmoore]

Tis is a pic from the ends the shorter coop is 8' with 2' covered and 6' open run space.

jim

 

[jimmoore]

I have 11 buff hens and a rooster on the west side of the hen house

jim

 

[jimmoore]

I have 9 barred rock hens and a couple of rooster on the east side. They will be laying by fall. The henhouse has a partition in the middle. I have a small incubator and I hatch quite a few chicks.

jim

 

[DrDan]

Thanks for sharing pictures of your operation. Looks great! I kinda like chickens so it's probably just a matter of time before I have several more (if ya know what I mean).

Dr Dan

 

[Boondox]

Jim -- I really like the design of your chicken tractors and will probably copy it next year. The big rectangles we've been using weigh so much the portability suffers.

I'm curious, though. What do you do with the manure from your permanent pens? Looks like quite a few birds in a relatively small space; they probably give you a heck of a start on composting!

Pete

www.GatewayToVermont.com

 

[jimmoore]

Since I have quit having a garden, Ijust clean out the henhouse and throw the manure in the woods. when I had a garden I would cleant it out an the manure and throw in on the garden during the winter season so it would have time to cure out some before planting time in the spring. fresh manure has so much acid it would burn the plants

jim

 

[patrickg]

Wonder what the greatest distance back from a barier/fence a varmit would dig to tunnel into the chicken enclosure? I thought I might install fence in an L shape with the short horizontal part of the L toward the outside of the enclosure, maybe buried just a bit and maybe not entirely horizontal but with th eouter edge the deepest. Sure would be a lot less wire for a large enclosure but a lot of wasted resources if the varmits tunnel under it anyway.

Ideas?

Patrick

 

[patrickg]

How tall are those fences and is there some kind of wire across the top to discourage varmits from dropping in for a chicken dinner? Hope to have something nice as yours someday where someday will probably be next year at the earliest. Might try to come up with a wheeled unit to allow moving around instead of previous thought of using fixed fence. Would save going into the enclosure to clean out manure. Will probably build some rabit hutches as well.

I recall being almost school age before I understood how it was that we raised rabits but ate chicken and there were always plenty of thighs and legs but no wings.

Patrick

 

[jimmoore]

Pat, 12 to 18 inches should be far enough. Critters are not very smart. They will always try to dig under right against the fence. They are not smart enough to back off from the fence and dig.My fixed fences are only 4 feet high. On the west side I clip the wings to keep the chickens in and I fasten them in the henhouse at night. The east side has cross braces and I attached 2x4 dog wire across the top of it, but that was mainly to keep the chuckers in. I have lost one hen to a redtailed hawk and one to a big yellow tom cat in the 7 years that I have been here.There is deep woods all around and they are full of ground hogs, hoot owls, foxes and raccoons.

jim

 

[jimmoore]

Oh, by the way the cost of building the 12 foot a frame was about $70.00

jim

 

[patrickg]

Thanks Jim,
We have the full gamut of indigenous freeloaders. Something has been at my pears. Of course some always fall off but the ground is littered with half eaten hard green pears about 1 1/2 times the size of a golf ball (get fist sized by September). Pretty good statistics on your losses. My sister-in-law raises fancy chickens and doves on her residential lot (1/2 - 3/4 acre) in addition to the goats to keep the horse company. She loses a chicken now and then to a bobcat that goes over the 6 ft cedar fence like a ladder. One evening she was admiring her caged doves (she has some in cages and the overflow from rampant overbreeding hang out around the place). She selected one of the caged birds to watch go for a twilight flight. As she tossed it into the air a Horned Owl took it less than 2 feet from her hands without breaking stride in his wingbeats.

All this talk about chickens has me anxious to get started raisin' the lil bugers. I can hear them all day at a distance as a neighbor about a half mile away keeps several fighting cocks. Just far enough away to add rural color but not loud enough to annoy.

Patrick

 

[jimmoore]

check this web site and click online catalog. These are good folks and ship good birds. click the brown layers. I have had both GOLDEN COMETS and CHERRY EGGERS. They both are good layers Their prices are better than mcmurray hatcheries also. http://www.klpoultryfarm.com

jim