That is the question. In October, I get calls from customers saying, “My chickens aren’t laying as many eggs” or “lay rate is down” and my first question is always “are you adding supplemental light to your chickens?” 95% of the time, the answer is no. Chickens lay eggs based on the amount of daylight. As daylight decreases, so does lay rate. For optimal lay rate, the hens need 16 hours of light per day.
The basic point: adding light or “light stimulation” will help maintain peak lay rate as days get shorter. Adding light convinces the hens the days are longer and that there is still work to do.
Why does this matter? Because consistent lay rate leads to consistent profit. Feed and labor costs will stay consistent whether your lay rate is 50% or 95%.
Let’s say your layer feed is $0.3123/lb. and you have 100 Hyline Brown hens that are 35 weeks of age. Hyline Browns have a peak lay rate of 94-96%.
100 laying hens will eat an average of 0.25 lbs. of feed per hen per day. That’s 25 lbs. of feed per day for the flock.
With feed costs at $0.3123/lb., your feed cost for 100 hens will be $7.81 in feed per day. 100 hens will lay 95 eggs during peak lay rate. That makes your feed cost per egg $0.0822 and feed cost per dozen $0.99.
Now, let’s say you don’t light stimulate, and the average day length is only 13 hours. This could reduce your lay rate 10-15% or even more as hens will go into a seasonal molt. Your cost per dozen will increase because the fixed costs spread across fewer eggs.
What to do to start light stimulating:
- Know the daylength. This link is a great resource for figuring out the daylength in your town: www.timeanddate.com. June 21 is the longest day of the year. Here in Reasca, we have 14 hours and 28 minutes of daylight on June 21. Daylength slowly starts to decrease after June 21st. For example, day length is down one hour to 13 hours and 28 minutes by August 14th.
- Invest in the equipment. With hens on pasture, a solar based light with a timer and battery backup is ideal. An individual in Virginia makes solar light systems that perform well. Email me at [email protected] for more information.
- Set a Timer. Light needs to stay consistent for consistent results. Inconsistent lighting can even force hens into an early molt. Unless you want to be tied to turning the lights on at 4:30 every morning, invest in a timer.
- Add light in the morning rather than the evening. I’m not the science behind it, but you’ll have the best success with adding supplemental lighting in the morning instead of adding it in the evening.
When supplementing light, you want to add light slowly. A good rule of thumb is 5 min per day or 30 min per week.
