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form Free-range poultry poultry for the garden
Taken from a 1940's Poultry Book
The artificial lighting of poultry houses for a period during the winter months has been proved to increase egg production to such an extent as to cover the extra cost and leave a handsome margin. At quite a modest estimate, one secures 15 extra eggs a day from every 50 fowls.
The beauty of winter night lighting is that it produces the extra eggs without forcing the birds or, indeed, without doing them any harm whatever. The reason why night, lighting, has a beneficial influence on laying is fairly obvious. In the spring and summer months the birds are out and ammer months the birds are out and about for 12 to 15 hours every day. In the winter months, with the shorter days, the birds are on the roosts from, perhaps, 4.30 in the afternoon until 7.30 the following morning. They spend the better part of the 24 hours in idleness and only a very small part in activity. When the birds have only a short working day there is not sufficient time between meals for them to work up a healthy appetite for their food, with the result that they do not eat sufficient to provide the raw materials for heavy egg production.
By artificially lighting the houses for a period, you compel the birds not only to be on their feet for a longer time but also to eat more, which in turn leads to more eggs. The question as to when the artificial lights should be on has been much discussed. The general conclusion is that the best lighting time is from 8 to 9 p.m. in the evening. The birds are allowed to finish their normal working day with dusk, then to go to roost, only to be " called " at 8 p.m., by the sudden lighting up of their houses, for an hour's activity and a meal. There is no difficulty in getting the roosting birds off the perches. They may be bewildered by the light at the very outset, but in a day or two they will have come to appreciate that this strange turning of night into day means food, and off they come hopping from the perches without a moment's hesitation. Similarly the birds are just as easily sent back to roost when their spell of "night-life" is over. This is accomplished by simulating dusk by gradually dimming the light until it is extinguished altogether.
On the question of what illuminate should be used, the
poultry-keeper has a choice of electric light, acetylene
lamps, petrol and paraffin vapour lamps and ordinary paraffin
hurricane lamps. Which of these forms should be chosen
depends upon the particular conditions prevailing. Thus, at a
large commercial egg farm electricity is undoubtedly best. In
many districts nowadays electricity supplies are available
from the grid, but even where a farm is in an isolated part
of the country the fitting of an electric lighting plant
should seriously be considered. Home electric light
generators are obtainable very cheaply second-hand.