Lighting in Chicken Coops: Do Your Hens Need It?

The Importance of Chicken Coop Lighting

Raising chickens is not just a fun hobby, it is also a source of fresh eggs and meat for many people. If you are planning to raise chickens, you might be wondering whether you need to install a light in your chicken coop. While it is not absolutely necessary to put a light in the coop, there are several reasons why a well-lit coop can benefit your hens and ultimately improve your egg production.

1. Keep Egg Production Consistent

Chickens need 12-14 hours of light a day to lay eggs consistently. If the day length reduces, natural egg production falls and at times stops completely. Lighting is important because it aids in encouraging hens to lay eggs by adding extra daylight hours to their environment. By installing a light in your chicken coop, you can maintain the length of daylight hours that your hens need to produce eggs all year round. A regular-sized bulb, LED or high-wattage incandescent bulb is enough to provide chickens with the required illumination.

2. Provide Warmth in Cold Months

Chickens can get accustomed to cold temperatures, but long periods of cold weather can be detrimental to their health. During cold winter months, providing additional light in your chicken coop can help keep your chickens warm. In addition, you will be able to save money on heating costs because the extra artificial light can provide enough warmth to keep your chickens comfortable.

3. Keep Your Hens Healthy

It is essential to provide light in your chicken coop to keep your hens healthy. During the shorter days of winter, low light levels can lower your chickens' vitamin D3 levels. Vitamin D3 is responsible for helping hens build strong laying bones for their eggs along with strong body muscles. With enough light, your chickens will be able to produce Vitamin D naturally, and this will keep them healthy.

4. Protection

Since chickens lack instinctive night vision, when it turns dark, they become an easy target for predators. Therefore, providing adequate lighting ensures that you can keep your chickens safe from predators. You can set up motion-detector lights to ward off potential predators that come at night.

5. Convenience

As a chicken owner, you should be able to provide for your flock adequately, and this includes making their living conditions as comfortable as possible. Having a light in the coop makes it easy to check on your hens during the early hours and late evenings to ensure they are doing okay.

Conclusion

It's clear that having lighting in your chicken coop is very useful, but you should note that too much light can be harmful to your hens. Too much light in the coop can induce stress to your hens which disrupts their sleep cycles causing a reduction in their egg-laying rate. A few hours of light every day will help keep your hens healthy and make sure that they produce eggs consistently year-round. Overall, the important factor is to learn how to maintain enough lighting while giving your hens comfortable and healthy living conditions.