How to choose winter and summer lighting for your chicken coop

0

2330

Article rating

Lighting in a chicken coop is an important aspect of raising healthy birds. Light affects living organisms, and a properly selected light regime can improve the health of chickens and have a beneficial effect on layers.

Coop lighting

Light structures can be purchased in the store or made by hand. But, in order to select and install lamps in chicken coop, you should first be familiar with the types of lighting in the house.

What kind of lighting to choose for a poultry house

The question of what kind of lighting should be in the chicken coop is one of the most important. The light in the hen house must be correctly selected: the required lamp power, the appropriate color and flicker frequency. Making the right choice among the huge assortment on the market is not at all difficult, it is only important to follow a few simple steps-recommendations when choosing lighting for a poultry house:

1. Remember a simple calculation: 6 sq. m you need 60 watts. Lamps in the right quantity are selected depending on how much the chicken coop room is.
2. It is better to choose 40 watt fluorescent lamps.
3. Fluorescent lamps can be replaced with fluorescent ones with a flickering effect, but in order to avoid adverse effects on the visual system of chickens and chickens, the recommended flicker frequency is 26 kHz.
4. You can stop at sodium lamps, they are standardly produced with a power of 50 watts and are ideal for lighting dark corners.
5. When choosing lighting for a home chicken coop, you should pay attention to the color of the lamps:

• blue color soothes and prevents any aggressive actions in chickens;
• the green color in the room of the laying hens has a beneficial effect on their physical development;
• red lighting in the coop is best avoided because it lowers egg production in chickens;
• orange, in contrast to the previous color, on the contrary, increases the reproductive ability of layers and increases the number of eggs.

A few more recommendations:

1. Due to the fact that the chicken coop must be humid, it is better to equip the room, all electrical wiring, sockets and electrical panels outside the territory of the house.
2. It is recommended to use thick shades and protective nets on lamps in poultry houses. This will help prevent bulbs from breaking and injuring hens and chicks from shrapnel.
3. When installing lighting, you need to take into account the season and the daily biological rhythms of the birds. This will be discussed in more detail below.
4. Brightness also matters a lot. Newborn chicks require bright lighting, up to 30 lux, while older chickens (after 21 days) require a minimum, only about 5 lux. When a rooster is in the hen house, the brightness should be set to 15 lux.

You can turn off the light in the chicken coop at night only after all the chickens have settled in their perchesotherwise they will be disoriented and will not be able to find their place until dawn.

It is better to choose lamps that provide smooth damping, the lighting of the chicken coop should be as natural as possible. A smooth transition from light to darkness will not cause aggression or panic in the birds, and a sharp shutdown, on the contrary, can lead to crush and panic in the house.

How and what does the lighting of the chicken coop affect?

Light plays one of the most important roles in the life of all life on Earth, and chickens are just confirmation of this. Properly selected lighting can have a beneficial effect on the productivity of birds, reduce the number of injuries, regulate their biorhythms and make the life of the poultry farmer much more comfortable.

There are two important factors for assessing lighting in a bird house: the intensity and duration of daylight hours. The first of them helps to regulate some processes, and its benefit is expressed in the ability to:

• helping very young chickens find water and feed;
• reducing the number of cases of aggression: pecking and trampling;
• carrying out various preventive procedures with birds without creating panic and causing moral harm to layers;
• shortening the annual molts;
• monitor the growing generation of chickens.

The second factor also allows you to regulate some of the vital processes of birds, among which are possible:

• regulation of the process of feed consumption;
• accelerated growth of broilers;
• control over puberty and the onset of laying eggs;
• in the summer months, it is possible to control the thermal regime of the chickens.

Both factors are fundamental and significantly affect the life of the birds inside the chicken coop. Poultry professionals also distinguish 2 main light modes: continuous and intermittent. The first one implies a clear day-night block, that is, the light regime changes twice a day, creating an artificial sunrise and sunset. The second mode allows you to create several (2 or more) light blocks during the day. But experts are still leaning towards the continuous option of lighting the chicken coop. Youngsters, layers and broilers need to select different light modes with different light temperatures and lighting times in the room.

It is important to remember that darkness is an important period in the development and maturation of the bird's body: at this time, bone tissue is formed, a change in calcium metabolism occurs, as a result of which the egg shell becomes denser; the immune system is strengthened, therefore, it is also wrong to completely isolate the chickens from the dark and keep them in conditions of constant illumination.

Winter house lighting options

In winter, domestic chickens need light especially strongly, because the duration of natural daylight hours decreases - vital processes slow down, and the hens begin to lay fewer eggs. In order to prevent the loss of fertility in chickens in winter, an artificial light regime must be established.

In winter, on frosty days, it is inconvenient to visit the chicken coop almost at night, so thoughtful poultry farmers have come up with a way to get rid of the daily late walks - creating a relay. To do this, you need to purchase a time timer. You can buy it anywhere: in the market, in a store or on the Internet. A cheap timer with a dozen modes would be a good option.

How to make a relay for a chicken coop with your own hands at home? The algorithm is as follows:

1. Assemble the lamp from OSB or other rough particle boards.
2. Based on the size of the luminaire, mount the electrical wiring.
3. Assemble the lamp and fix it on the metal corners on the wall of the chicken coop.
4. Connect the timer to the luminaire and set the required readings on the meter.

The light in the hen house should be turned on at dawn, and turned off not at sunset, but later.

The average daylight hours should be about 14 hours. The lighting in the home chicken coop in winter is regulated depending on the daylight hours.

This condition will allow creating the correct regime for the birds, and compliance with the regime ensures good growth and development for the birds.

Heating the poultry house in winter

In winter, the coop should be quite warm so that the chickens do not freeze or get sick. Heating of chicks in winter plays an important role in poultry keeping. If it is not possible to leave a brood with a brooding mother, the best option would be to make a brooder. A brooder is, conditionally, a box for chicks in the first days of their life, in which the correct heating and lighting is adjusted.

The main requirements for creating a brooder:

1. Permanent dryness of the floor.
2. No slipping on the floor.
3. Installed container or tray under the bottom for faeces.
4. The brooder should be well ventilated but free of drafts.
5. In such a box, the humidity level should not be too high.
6. The heating system must be monitored so that it does not overheat the chicks.
7. It is best to move the chicks away from the heater and the entire heating system.

Creating such a brooder will help chicks not to freeze in winter, but to grow up healthy and strong. Thermal conditions are especially important for birds bred in an incubator.

Broilers are also more sensitive to light changes. For artificial brood, both lighting and an enhanced heating system are important.

Recommendations for developing your own lighting system

Lighting for poultry plays an important role in the process of raising birds. Different fixtures and LED bulbs can affect chickens in different ways. Tips for creating your own chicken coop lighting program:

1. It is necessary to start light restrictions when the bird reaches a weight of 100-150 g or after the first week.
2. If the bird has gained the prescribed weight earlier, you need to start changing the light mode earlier, regardless of the time.
3. It is best to use only one solid block of darkness.
4. It is recommended not to change the time on and off the light unnecessarily - it should be better if it is automatic.
5. In summer, the hours of darkness can be shortened somewhat.
6. Before slaughtering, the light phase should be increased to 23 hours, and the day before catching, the brightness should also be increased to 20 lux in order to prepare the bird.
7. Smooth switching on and off of the light will help protect birds from aggression.
8. For summer, the dark block can be moved so that it ends at dawn.

Lighting is essential for any bird, and poultry chickens are no exception. A properly selected system can increase fertility, and the egg itself can do better in terms of technical characteristics. In winter, it is better to build a brooder for chicks: it will help protect them from the harmful effects of low temperatures.

Automatic control of lighting in the house is also recommended.

The relay can be made with your own hands from materials that have nowhere to put, or you can buy it in specialized stores.

Why do so many lighting selections? They are simple, but the result is colossal. It is possible to cope with the selection and installation of lighting and heating systems in a day, and the positive consequences of them will delight the poultry farmer for more than one year. For a more detailed look at the process of creating artificial lighting for birds, watch the step-by-step video.