Solar lights can help bridge some of challenges of shorter days.
Everybody be cool; we’re here for the eggs.
Solar lights can help bridge some of challenges of shorter days.
Everybody be cool; we’re here for the eggs.
Summer vs. Winter Sunlight Hours
Anyone who lives materially north or south of the equator is all too familiar with the statement, “Wow…the days are getting really short now,” when fall and winter begin rolling around. Moving to the Midwest was our first foray into this experience, having lived most of our lives in Southern states. Of course, the closer you get to the equator, the more equal the days are year round.
It may have been obvious to other people, but we were blown away by how much difference a move from a location like Florida to a place like Wisconsin can make. For comparison, Orlando loses three hours and 38 minutes from the summer solstice in June (longest day of the year) to the winter solstice in December (shortest day). However, in Milwaukee the difference is six hours and 22 minutes--almost three hours more. The difference gets more extreme the further north or south you go, with Anchorage, for example, coming in at 13 hours and 54 minutes difference between the two days.
That’s a big difference in daylight hours depending on where you live!
If you’re raising animals, the lack of light can present challenges in the winter months. In our case, since we still have day jobs off the homestead, much of our farm work often happens before or after work. Factoring into that challenge is the fact that most farm animals aren’t overly keen on someone they can’t see, coming and checking in on them.
No matter how much we dote and love on our chickens, they seem hardwired to believe I’m a fox or wolf trying to eat them when I first crack open the coop door. Is the guy in a headlamp really a cyclops coming to steal their eggs? I have no idea what must be running through their minds.
Whatever the case, we wanted a solution that provided some level of broad light in an otherwise dark space around the coop.
Fill Some of the Sunlight Gap with Solar Light
We’ve always been interested in solar options where we can afford it. I know there’s a lot of debate online about whether solar electricity is as green as it’s touted. We won’t wade into that debate, but will only share that our motivation behind solar in our space is…simplicity.
We’re enamored with the idea of not being tethered to the grid constantly. We like the idea of being as self-sufficient as possible but there’s also a practical consideration with the chicken tractor. Since we constantly move our coop around our property to give our hens free range, it doesn’t make sense to have power cords running everywhere across the property.
So I started looking into solar lights. At first I found the ones that were used for landscaping around the house and I knew that’s not what I wanted. Then I stumbled onto these solar accent lights that were designed to be perched on a home’s gutters. While not originally designed for our purpose, I didn’t see any reason why they couldn’t be used for it, so I decided to try them out.
I looked at all the big box stores and finally found some basic white ones at a store called Menards (common to the Midwest) for about $7 each, but decided to look online as well. Most of my searches led me to Amazon where I found essentially identical lights for around $4.50 each.
From there, we mounted the lights in a couple of strategic locations around the coop. I knew that the front door was a key area because I wanted to be able to see that the primary door was closed and locked without a headlamp. We also wanted to have some light by the smaller door where we typically retrieve the eggs from, so I mounted one there as well.
We’ve been using these for about two months and they provide significant light in the strategic areas we need it. If you’re looking for a bright “work light” level that lights up a broad area, this isn’t the light for you. It’s small and inexpensive and works great at helping us quickly locate the chicken tractor in the dark. The lights are also bright enough to help us easily see the coop doors and locks while doing minimal work like egg retrieval.
Some things to take into consideration are the battery size and solar cell size. Neither are huge, so much like solar landscape lights they start out very bright in the early evening and by the wee morning hours they dim and turn off as the battery charge gets low. This wasn’t a big deal for us because I was shooting for a solution that would operate when I was getting off work. I’m not typically harvesting eggs at 1 a.m.
Another thing to consider is that depending on where you are, if there is inclement weather, sustained cloudiness, snow buildup, or very short days (like parts of Canada or Alaska) then this may not work for your situation. Since the solar cells are on top of the light, we make sure they are cleared of snow and the solar lights are getting as much sunlight as possible for each location.
Patrick Swain writes and posts videos at purposedrivenhomestead.com.
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