Raising chicks in winter or fall? Don’t make this fatal mistake!
Can you safely raise chicks in the winter or fall? Absolutely.
BUT, unlike with your spring chicks, you will need to provide a very specific duration of artificial light to your brooder and coop if you want to fully ensure your chicks’ safety.
If you fail to provide the correct duration of light to your off-season chicks, your female chicks may reproductively mature too rapidly. As a result, they’ll be more susceptible to egg binding and vent prolapse, which are potentially fatal conditions.
In this article, you’ll learn exactly how to calculate the amount of light your off-season chicks will need in order to develop naturally. Follow these instructions to help ensure your young hens don’t suffer from egg binding, prolapse, or a potentially early death due to laying too early.
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What months are considered the off-season for raising chicks?
The off-season for raising chicks falls from August through March.
If your chicks are hatched in this time period, you’ll need to provide extra lighting for your chicks (i.e., lighting beyond normal daylight hours).
Note that the off-season includes not just winter and fall months, but the very late summer and very early spring months as well. Although many people have successfully raised healthy chicks in March and August with only natural lighting, Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens warns that chicks raised in these months are actually at risk as well.
If, on the other hand, your chicks have been hatched sometime between April and July (the on-season), you can raise them in natural light, and save yourself a lot of hassle!
To learn more reasons you may want to raise your chicks in the spring, and to get instructions on how to choose the perfect time, check out my article, When to buy baby chicks: The simple calculation to find which day is best for you.
Why do winter and fall chicks need artificial light?
Why is too-early maturation a problem for off-season chicks, but not for spring chicks?
Because raising chickens in the winter or fall isn’t natural. Chicks naturally hatch in the springtime. They remain reproductively immature until summertime, and then they slowly mature over the summer and fall as the days are getting shorter.
Then, the following spring (and each spring thereafter), the longer days will induce egg-laying in hens. That’s the natural way of things.
But if you raise your chicks in the off-season, your chicks are exposed to the opposite light cycle. They mature reproductively when the days are getting longer, rather than shorter. And as you now know, longer days induce egg-laying. For your off-season chicks, this can accelerate their reproductive maturity, causing them to lay eggs earlier than what’s good for them.
Basically, your girls may start laying when they’re too young. Their reproductive tracts won’t have fully matured when they go into lay. The result can be egg-binding—where your hen produces an egg that’s too large for her to pass through her system, and it gets stuck.
Or, the result can be vent prolapse, where part of your hen’s reproductive tract actually gets pushed out of her vent and is left exposed. And in the worst cases, your hen may suffer from both egg binding and prolapse at the same time—what a nightmare!
You can see what an egg-bound hen looks like in the video below. Fast forward to about 2 minutes and 15 seconds into the video. Warning—the hen does die later in the video. If your egg-bound hen is not able to pass her egg within about 48 hours, she will die.
In this next video, you can see an example of a hen who’s vent has prolapsed. Warning—this video is graphic, but the hen doesn’t seem to be in pain and she is successfully treated (a happy ending!).
Sometimes vent prolapse can be treated successfully as it is in the video above, but if it’s severe, your hen may not survive it.
“Prolapse may be largely avoided by ensuring—through seasonal hatching or the use of controlled lighting and proper nutrition—that your pullets don’t start laying too young…”
In this last video below, you can see a hen who is both prolapsed and egg-bound at the same time!
Warning—this video is graphic! The hen does survive the treatment, but in a later video update, the chicken keeper regrettably informs us that the hen suffered prolapse and egg binding again with her next egg—and was subsequently euthanized.
Do all off-season chicks get egg-bound or prolapsed without artificial light?
No. In fact, most off-season chicks won’t suffer from egg binding or vent prolapse, but their chances are increased compared to seasonal (springtime) chicks.
And as you can see from the videos above, these conditions can actually affect hens of any age. However, off-season chicks are especially vulnerable.
And that’s why you need to provide artificial lighting if you want to be safe. You want to mimic the experience your chicks would have if they were born in the spring or early summer. Basically, you want the light duration to be decreasing each week (or at least not increasing) when your chicks begin maturing reproductively.
What kind of artificial light do your off-season chicks need?
You’ll want to use incandescent lights or LED lights in your brooder and coop.
Gail Damerow recommends incadescent bulbs, but more recent research suggests LED lights may be preferred for chicks.
Using incandescent lights for your chicks
The wattage you need will depend on the size of your coop. For example, if you have a large coop (200 square feet), you’ll want to hang one 60-watt light bulb about 7 feet above the floor.
If your coop is larger than 200 square feet, you’ll need to add more than one lightbulb.
If your coop is smaller, you can use a 40-watt light bulb or even less wattage.
Using LED lights for your chicks
Recent research suggests that light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are a great choice for raising chicks because they approximate daylight better than other types of light and the bulbs last longer.
Using a light timer
You’ll want to set your light bulb on a timer so you can control the exact duration of light your chickens’ will get at the time they need to get it. You’ll time the light to go on a certain amount of time before daylight hours begin, and you’ll have the timer go off when daylight starts.
To do this correctly, you’ll need to follow the step-by-step instructions provided below.
Why do your chicks need artificial light in the morning, rather than in the evening?
You should turn your artificial lights on in the morning (before daybreak), rather than in the evening (after nightfall).
You don’t want to add the light at the end of the day because your chicks will be extremely upset if their light goes suddenly from bright to darkness. Chickens don’t see well in the dark—they don’t even see as well as we do.
This means that if lights suddenly go out in the brooder, your chicks will be terrified and let out a whole lot of distress calls. And if the lights suddenly go out in the coop, your chickens won’t be able to find their way back into the coop and onto their roosting bars.
Set your light on a timer to come on in the morning instead.
How to provide the right duration of light for your chicks
There are two different methods you can use to provide light for your chicks: the step-down method and the fixed-light method.
I’ll get into the nitty-gritty of how to calculate the right amount of light for both of these methods below, but for now, I just want to explain what these two methods are. That way you can pick the method that’s right for you and follow the instructions for that method below.
The step-down method is a method where you try to mimic the light chicks would be getting in nature if they were raised in-season in the spring. So as they sexually matured, they’d be exposed to less light each week.
The fixed-light method, in contrast, is a method where you choose a duration of light based on where you live (for example, 15 hours). Then, you make sure your chicks get that duration of light (e.g., 15 hours) every single day. Because your natural day length is constantly changing, you will need to increase or decrease the duration of artificial light you provide each week to ensure your chicks are always receiving 15 hours of total light.
How do you decide which method to use?
Chicks need to get at least 8 hours of darkness every night for good health. You really can pick either method as long as your calculations ensure your chicks are getting 8 hours of darkness every night (or almost every night).
In previous years, I only provided instructions for the step-down method of artificial lighting in this blog post, but then someone contacted me and said when she calculated the light schedule for her chicks, there were some weeks where the chicks would only get 4-5 hours of darkness each night. That’s not enough.
So I did some more research into the literature and found an alternative method, the fixed-light method. When my reader calculated her schedule using the fixed-light method, she came up with a fixed light duration of 15 hours, which ensured her chicks would get at least 8 hours of darkness (9 hours in her case). This woman lived in Maine and her chicks were hatching in February. 15 hours was the magic fixed-light number for her—you’ll need to follow the steps below to see what the magic number is for you.
So again—short answer—either method is fine as long as your chicks are getting at least 8 hours of darkness each day for their entire schedule. For some locations, the fixed-light schedule may be the only one that allows this.
I’ve provided step-by-step instructions for BOTH methods below so you can easily figure out how to implement whichever lighting schedule you’ve chosen.
Method 1: How to use the step-down method of artificial lighting
I’ve broken down exactly how to calculate the duration of light your chicks will need each week in 9 steps. It may look a little confusing at first, but if you just follow each step one at a time before moving onto the next, it’s really quite simple.
So, get your pen and paper ready, and let’s get started.
Step 1: Choose your chicks’ hatch day.
Remember, artificial light only needs to be added if your chicks have hatched August through March. Otherwise, you may safely raise your chicks in natural light.
As an example, I’m going to choose October 1st as a hatch day for my autumn chicks.
What’s your chicks’ hatch date?
Step 2: Find out how many hours of daylight there are during your chicks’ hatch day.
You can find this information in an almanac—either a physical book, if you have one, or just online.
Here’s how to find it online—type the following in your search engine:
Day length for [your chicks’ hatching date, year] in [your location]
For my circumstances, I searched, “Day length for October 1, 2021 in Idaho.”
You can see in the screenshot below that the first result that came up for me came from timeanddate.com.
I clicked on that entry and scrolled down to find that the website has day-length information for any month or year I could want. I changed the month to “October” and the year to “2021” and clicked “Go.” You can see in the screenshot below that the day length in Idaho on October 1, 2021 is 11 hours and 41 minutes.
I’m going to round this number to 11.5 hours.
What’s the day length for your hatch day at your location?
Step 3: Determine your breeds’ ages of lay (in weeks).
The next thing you want to do is figure out at what age your hens are supposed to lay.
You can find this out by checking the breed pages on your hatchery’s website, or by using your search engine. I also provide egg-laying information for many chicken breeds on my website—you can check to see if your breeds are listed in my chicken breeds database.
If you are having trouble finding your chicken breeds’ ages of lay, you can assume 24 weeks (~6 months). A 24-week age of lay is a safe estimate for most chicken breeds.
Step 4: Determine which day your chicks are expected to lay.
Once you know your chicken breeds’ ages of lay, pick the longest age.
So, for example, let’s say I’ll be ordering both White Leghorn chicks and Wyandotte chicks. I can expect my Leghorn chickens to lay eggs at about 20 weeks old, whereas I can expect my Wyandotte chicks to lay eggs at about 24 weeks old.
So, for this next exercise, I will use 24 weeks. If I were only ordering White Leghorns, I would use 20 weeks.
Now, look at your calendar. Start at your chicks’ hatch date and then count out your chicks’ age of lay in weeks to find which day they’re expected to lay.
In my example, I’ll start with October 1st, 2021 (their hatch date), and I’ll count out 24 weeks. This brings me to March 18, 2022.
So, my chicks’ expected date of first lay is March 18, 2022.
What’s your chicks’ date?
Step 5: Find out how many hours of daylight there are during your chicks’ expected date of first lay.
You’ll follow the same process you did in Step 2, except now you’ll use your chicks’ expected date of first lay (Step 4), rather than their hatch date.
In the screenshot below, you can see that the day length in Idaho for March 18, 2022 is 12 hours and 3 minutes.
I’ll round this number down to 12 hours.
What’s the day length for your expected laying date at your location?
Step 6: Add 6 hours to the day length you found in Step 5 to calculate how many total hours of light your chicks need starting out.
So, I found in Step 4 that my expected date of first lay was March 18, 2022. Then I found in Step 5 that this day will have 12 hours of sunlight.
If I add 6 hours to that, I get 18 hours. This is the duration of total light (both natural and artificial) my chicks need each day in their first week of life.
However, if I give my chicks 18 hours of light, that means they’ll only be getting 6 hours of darkness at night when they really should be getting 8. My chicks would be better off if I used the fixed-light method rather than the step-down method. You can learn how to use the fixed-light method further below.
Step 7: Determine how long you need to provide artificial light for your chicks in their first week of life.
You will take the hours of light your chicks need (which you found in Step 6), and you’ll subtract the day length of your chicks’ hatch date (which you found in Step 2).
In my example, my chicks need 18 hours of light their first week of life. Their hatch day has a day length of 11.5 hours.
So, here’s my math:
18 hours – 11.5 hours = 6.5 hours
So, I need to add 6 hours and 30 minutes of artificial light onto each day for my chicks’ first week of life.
How much time do you need to add?
Step 8: Determine how much you need to reduce your chicks’ artificial light each week.
Now, you’ll take the number you determined in Step 7 (the duration of artificial light you’ll provide in week 1), and you’ll divide that number by your chicks’ expected age of lay.
So, in my example, I’m providing 6.5 hours of artificial light in week 1, and my chicks’ expected age of lay is 24 weeks. Here’s the division I’ll do:
6.5 hours/24 weeks = 0.27 hours/week
I want to find out what this number is in minutes, so I’ll multiple it by 60.
0.27 hours/week * 60 minutes/hour = 16.2 minutes/week
I’m going to round that down to 16 minutes.
This means I need to reduce my chicks’ exposure to artificial light by 16 minutes each week.
Step 9: Create a simple-to-follow schedule for your chicks’ weekly artificial light duration.
I’ve determined my chicks need 18 hours of light their first week (Step 6), and I’ve determined the chicks’ hatch date has 11.5 hours of light (Step 2). So, for my chicks’ first week of life, I need to add 6 hours and 22 minutes of artificial light onto their day (Step 7).
For week two (and every week thereafter), I need to reduce the artificial light my chicks receive by 16 minutes a week (Step 8).
For my example, you can see what my artificial lighting schedule would look like below:
| Chicks' age | Artificial light (duration) |
|---|---|
| Week 1 Hatch date: October 1, 2021 |
6 hours, 22 minutes |
| Week 2 |
6 hours, 6 minutes |
| Week 3 |
5 hours, 50 minutes |
| Week 4 |
5 hours, 34 minutes |
| Week 5 |
5 hours, 18 minutes |
| Week 6 |
5 hours, 2 minutes |
| Week 7 |
4 hours, 46 minutes |
| Week 8 |
4 hours, 30 minutes |
| Week 9 |
4 hours, 14 minutes |
| Week 10 |
3 hours, 58 minutes |
| Week 11 |
3 hours, 42 minutes |
| Week 12 |
3 hours, 26 minutes |
| Week 13 |
3 hours, 10 minutes |
| Week 14 |
2 hours, 54 minutes |
| Week 15 |
2 hours, 38 minutes |
| Week 16 |
2 hours, 22 minutes |
| Week 17 |
2 hours, 6 minutes |
| Week 18 |
1 hour, 50 minutes |
| Week 19 |
1 hour, 34 minutes |
| Week 20 |
1 hour, 18 minutes |
| Week 21 |
1 hour, 2 minutes |
| Week 22 |
46 minutes |
| Week 23 |
30 minutes |
| Week 24 Expected date of first egg-laying: March 18, 2022 |
14 minutes |
| Week 25 |
0 minutes |
So, when you finally reach your chicks’ expected age of lay, you’ll no longer need to add artificial light—your ladies are safe to lay!
You can see this reflected in my schedule above, where I’ve scheduled in “0 minutes” of artificial light on Week 25.
You can see in my schedule I reduced the artificial light by 16 minutes each week (Step 8). However, if you look back at Step 8, you’ll be reminded that the true number I calculated was 16.2 minutes/week—which I then rounded down to 16 minutes. This is why I don’t reach “0 minutes” until week 25 (rather than week 24).
Depending on how you rounded your number in Step 8, you’ll either reach “0 minutes” of artificial light at your expected date of first lay, or the following week.
Take the time now to make your schedule while everything is fresh on your mind. (Do you really want to have to read this post again?)
Method 2: How to use the fixed-light method of artificial lighting
Follow steps 1-4 above!
To implement the fixed-light method, you’ll need to follow the same first 4 steps you did in the step-down method above. These steps are:
Step 1: Choose your chicks’ hatch day.
Step 2: Find out how many hours of daylight there are during your chicks’ hatch day.
Step 3: Determine your breeds’ ages of lay (in weeks).
Step 4: Determine which day your chicks are expected to lay.
You’ll find detailed instructions for each of these 4 steps above.
Step 5: Find out which day is the longest day during your chicks’ period of maturation (i.e., hatch day to their expected day of first lay).
As a reminder, the longest day of the year is the summer solstice, June 21st. The shortest day of the year is the winter solstice, December 21st.
This means the days get shorter between June 21st and December 21st, and they get longer between December 21st and June 21st.
So which day is the longest day during your chicks’ maturation period (i.e., hatch day to lay day)?
If the summer solstice (June 21st) lies within your chicks’ maturation period, then the summer solstice is your longest day.
For my example, though, my chicks' hatch date is October 1st. Their expected date of first lay is March 18th, ~6 months later. Daylength decreases from October to December 21st and then increases again until March 18th. So, the longest day for me is going to either be the hatch day (October 21st) or their date of first lay (March 18th).
March 18th is further from the winter solstice, so that’s going to be my longest day.
Step 6: Determine how many hours of daylight there will be during your longest day.
Just as I did for step 2, I’ll use the same website (timeanddate.com) to determine how many hours of daylight there will be on March 18th in Idaho. The website tells me 12 hours.
This means I want my chicks to have 12 hours of light total (artificial + natural light) every day until they lay their first egg or until the longest day has passed (whichever comes first). After that day, I can stop providing my chicks with artificial light.
Step 7: Determine the hours of daylight for each week.
I’ve determined my chicks need 12 hours of light every day. So I need to figure out how many hours of daylight there will be each week so that I can figure out how much artificial light to add or subtract each week to equal 12 hours.
I already know the day length for the first week (Step 2) and the last week (step 6). Now I have to figure out the day length for all the days in between. Once again, I’ll use timeanddate.com.
Note: If the summer solstice lies within your chicks’ maturation period, you only need to do find the daylengths up until the solstice (your longest day). Once you reach the solstice, daylight hours will decrease and you no longer need to provide artificial light.
But because my longest day is the day of lay, ont he other hand, I will need to provide artificial light for the whole 6 months of my chicks’ maturation.
Below you can see the daylengths for my schedule:
| Chicks' age | Day length (hrs) |
|---|---|
| Week 1 Hatch date: October 1, 2021 |
11 hours, 42 minutes |
| Week 2 |
11 hours, 21 minutes |
| Week 3 |
11 hours |
| Week 4 |
10 hours, 40 minutes |
| Week 5 |
10 hours, 21 minutes |
| Week 6 |
10 hours, 2 minutes |
| Week 7 |
9 hours, 45 min |
| Week 8 |
9 hours, 30 min |
| Week 9 |
9 hours, 16 min |
| Week 10 |
9 hours, 6 min |
| Week 11 |
8 hours, 58 minutes |
| Week 12 |
8 hours, 54 minutes |
| Week 13 |
8 hours, 54 minutes |
| Week 14 |
8 hours, 58 minutes |
| Week 15 |
9 hours, 5 minutes |
| Week 16 |
9 hours, 15 minutes |
| Week 17 |
9 hours, 29 minutes |
| Week 18 |
9 hours, 44 minutes |
| Week 19 |
10 hours |
| Week 20 |
10 hours, 20 minutes |
| Week 21 |
10 hours, 40 minutes |
| Week 22 |
11 hours |
| Week 23 |
11 hours, 21 minutes |
| Week 24 |
11 hours, 42 minutes |
| Week 25 Expected date of first egg-laying: March 18, 2022 |
12 hours |
Step 8: Create a simple-to-follow schedule for your chicks’ weekly artificial light duration.
Now, simply take the number you came up with in step 6 for the longest day during your chicks’ maturation period. For me, the longest day was 12 hours. Subtract the day length for each week from your number to determine how many minutes of artificial light you need to provide to your chicks each week.
You can see I’ve done this simple math for every week in the table below. So, on week 1, I’ll provide just ~20 minutes of artificial light every morning. The next week, I’ll provide ~40 minutes of light, and so on.
| Chicks' age | Day length (hrs) | Artificial light (duration) |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 Hatch date: October 1, 2021 |
11 hours, 42 minutes |
18 minutes |
| Week 2 |
11 hours, 21 minutes |
39 minutes |
| Week 3 |
11 hours |
1 hour |
| Week 4 |
10 hours, 40 minutes |
1 hour, 20 minutes |
| Week 5 |
10 hours, 21 minutes |
1 hour, 39 minutes |
| Week 6 |
10 hours, 2 minutes |
1 hour, 58 minutes |
| Week 7 |
9 hours, 45 min |
2 hours, 15 minutes |
| Week 8 |
9 hours, 30 min |
2 hours, 30 minutes |
| Week 9 |
9 hours, 16 min |
2 hours, 44 minutes |
| Week 10 |
9 hours, 6 min |
2 hours, 54 minutes |
| Week 11 |
8 hours, 58 minutes |
3 hours, 2 min |
| Week 12 |
8 hours, 54 minutes |
3 hours, 6 min |
| Week 13 |
8 hours, 54 minutes |
3 hours, 6 min |
| Week 14 |
8 hours, 58 minutes |
3 hours, 2 min |
| Week 15 |
9 hours, 5 minutes |
2 hours, 55 min |
| Week 16 |
9 hours, 15 minutes |
2 hours, 45 min |
| Week 17 |
9 hours, 29 minutes |
2 hours, 31 min |
| Week 18 |
9 hours, 44 minutes |
2 hours, 16 min |
| Week 19 |
10 hours |
2 hours |
| Week 20 |
10 hours, 20 minutes |
1 hour, 40 minutes |
| Week 21 |
10 hours, 40 minutes |
1 hour, 20 minutes |
| Week 22 |
11 hours |
1 hour |
| Week 23 |
11 hours, 21 minutes |
39 minutes |
| Week 24 |
11 hours, 42 minutes |
18 minutes |
| Week 25 Expected date of first egg-laying: March 18, 2022 |
12 hours |
0 minutes |
What if your chicks still lay early?
If you have provided your chicks with the correct duration of artificial light, and they still lay earlier than their expected date of lay, don’t sweat it. You did everything right, and your chicks just matured faster than you expected.
The age of lay really does vary within breeds and strains, and from each individual to the next. We never really know this date for sure. We can only estimate.
Do I REALLY need to do all this?
Here’s the truth: almost no backyard chicken keepers actually use a light schedule in the off-season.
If you don’t impose a light schedule, the RISKS of prolapse, etc. are increased, but that doesn’t mean your chickens will have these problems. Most chickens will be okay without the schedule.
I, personally, would 100% use an artificial light schedule if I were ever going to raise chicks in the off-season. I don’t like to take any chances with my birds, and I tend to be plagued by guilt whenever anything goes wrong in my flock.
But the truth is I will NEVER raise chicks in the off-season simply because I’m too lazy to want to deal with the extra hassle.
It’s really up to you what risks you want to take with your chicks.
Need more tips on raising fall and winter chicks?
Check out my article, 6 tips for safely raising chicks in the winter and fall.
Pin this article for later!
Sources
Damerow, Gail. Hatching and brooding your own chicks. North Adams: Storey Publishing, 2013.
Damerow, G., The Chicken Health Handbook. North Adams: Storey Publishing, 2015.
Damerow, Gail. Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens. North Adams: Storey Publishing, 2017.
Ray, S., Swain, P. Amin, R., Nahak, A., Sahoo, S., Rautray, A., and Mishra, A. “Prolapse in laying hens: Its pathophysiology and management: A review.” Indian Journal of Animal Production and Management, v. 29, no. 3-4, 2013, p. 17-24.
Soliman, F. and El-Sabrout, K., “Light wavelengths/colors: Future prospects for broiler behavior and production.” Journal of Veterinary Behavior, v. 36, 2020, P. 34-39.