The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1920-01-09
Electric Lights and Egg Production

According to Professor ". F.
Schoppe, poultry expert of the Mon
tana State College Experimental
Farm, the use of electric lights in hen
houses actually increases egg produc-
ton to a very considerable extent
during the winter months. Claims of
this nature have already been adj
vanced from number of sources, and
it is said that greatly increased pro-
fits have been shown. Professor
Schoppe has conducted some very
careful and exhaustive tests which
seem to prove beyond any reasonable
doubt that the intelligent use of cleo
trio light in hen houses does show a
worth while increase in egg produc
ton. Here is the story of his test.
Two flocks of one hundred and six
ty Leghorn hens each were penned in
separate houses. The birds were di-
vided into the two flocks without
choice and all conditions except that
of light were kept the same through
out the test. The test was started on
October LIST, and continued until July
91st One flock was allowed to go
with no other than natural light, 60
ing to roost at dark each night. In
the other pen electric lights were in
stalled. The lights were turned on at
six o'clock in the morning when the
DAYS were short and were allowed to
burn until daylight. They were then
turned on again at dark and burned
until nine in the evening. In this pen
the hens were up at six A. M. regard
less of the length of the days and did
not roost until nine P. M.
1t was found naturally that the
hens in the lighted pens needed more
feed than those in the unlighted pens,
and this extra supply of feed, though
not large, was figured into the profit
made on the hens and into the cost of
the lights.
Some interesting figures showed
up. During the month of November
the unlighted pens showed loss of
Az cents a bird while the electrically
lighted pens showed a profit of near
ly "a cents bird. Quite.a difference.
And yet in December the contrast was
even more marked, because while the
unlighted pens showed profit of 11.6
cents a bird, the lighted houses re-
turned profit of 59.2 cents.
Taking the ten months as whole
the lighted houses produced nearly
$4,000 more profit than the unlight
ed ones. The exact figures were
s473.80 for the unlighted pens and
S568.19 for the lighted. A difference
that is surely worth having.
Now of course it is understood that
this University test was very care
fully conducted and that all the birds
received good care and good feeding
regardless of which flock they were
in, so that their production was prob
ably rather high anyway. But it will
be noted that the record speaks of
profit and not of production, and
shows clearly that the hens in the
lighted pens produced a higher pro-
fit after making full allowance for
the extra feed they consumed and
for the cost of the lights.
This means that any farm can in
stalled electric lights in its chicken
house and expect to show an in
creased egg profit at the end of the
year Where there is already an cleo
trio plant on the farmland there
now are on over 100000 farms in this
country-the running of wires to the
chicken house and installing of lights
is a very small matter, and the cost
of the extra current used will be
scarcely matter.