The use of artificial lights is very important in extending the egg production of ducks. An increasing day length (December 21 to June 21) stimulates birds to lay more eggs and shorter days (June 21 to December 21) stimulate them to lay fewer eggs and eventually stop egg production. Therefore, the control of day length is very important in starting, maintaining and stopping egg production in ducks.
To start egg production
When we stimulate our duck breeders to start egg production in December, we add ¾ of an hour in the morning and ¾ hour in the evening to the natural day length. Then every 3-4 days we add another half hour alternating between the morning and evening until we get to a total of 17 hours of light and 7 hours of dark.
To maintain egg production
It is important that you increase your day length to equal the longest day of the year in your latitude. Why? So that your ducks never notice the days getting shorter starting June 21. Let us assume your longest natural day length is 17 hours but you only added enough artificial light in the spring to go up to 16 hours. Well, your birds will be subjected to increasingly shorter days from June 21 until some time in July or August when the natural day length is down to 16 hours. And they will lay fewer eggs because of this shortening of their day. From that point on they will have 16 hours of light, but some of the damage will have already occurred.
To stop egg production
If you want your birds to go into a molt, turn off the artificial lights. This will help shock their system into a molt and rest period.
Intensity of Light
Birds do not need an intense light to stimulate them. It can be as little as .5 footcandle but it is probably better to get a level of 3-5 footcandles. In general this means sufficient light to read a newspaper. Oftentimes this light level is met about a half hour prior to sunrise and stops a half hour after sunset.
The following charts show the natural day length of three latitudes in the US. You can set your day length according to these charts. If you prefer, you can go the Gaisma website for a chart like this for your city. For exact sunrise and sunset times for every day of the year in your town, you can go to the US Navy Oceanography website. You want to use the civil sunrise and sunset times (the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon) as this is about the point the light is at about 3-5 footcandles.
These charts are marked in military time – 6 is 6am, 12 is noon, 18 is 6pm. Sample cities for each sample latitude are shown below each chart.
For this northern latitude, the lights should come on about 4:30am and go off at 9:45pm.
For this central latitude, the lights should come on about 5am and turn off about 9:15pm.
In this southern US latitude, the lights should come on about 5:45am and go off at 9:00pm.
Doesn't using a light to increase egg production normally lead to the bird dying sooner?
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of that effect of lighting. I don't know why artificial lighting would lead to an earlier death.
ReplyDeleteOk, I thought I had read that, but when I looked back to where I thought I got it from, it didn't say anything about it. I had thought that I read that it caused an earlier death because the break in the winter was good for them, but like I said, I can't find where I heard or read that before, so it probably isn't correct if you've never heard of it.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering about leaving the lights on all the time, which we do to deter predators. Do the youngsters need 8 hours of dark night to stimulate them into laying? Thanks for your wonderful company and amazing website!-Khaiti
ReplyDeleteI don't have a definitive answer on the effects of 24 hours of light. It is not done commercially as there is no need for 24 hours of light and it is expensive. If possible, I would provide 18 hours of brighter light and 8 hours of dimmer light.
ReplyDeleteI am thinking of using Solar powered LED lights to light my duck pens, but it will last the whole night, Will accessive lights makes any different in duck eaggs production?
ReplyDeleteThanks
Norman
You can use LED but I would prefer to put them on a timer so they run from sunset until about 8:30pm and then turn on at 3:30am and run until sunrise. Hopefully you can find the correct timer. Try some of the landscape supply stores that have solar powered lights for landscaping. Some of those have built in timers. My guess is that timed lights are best, 24 hour lighting is second best and natural daylength is third best.
ReplyDelete