552 ARTIFICIAL ILLUMINATION 



What Lights Will Do. — Lights properly operated will materially 

 increase the winter egg production of pullets. Lights properly 

 operated will also materially increase the yearly egg production of 

 individual hens, although not to such a marked degree as increase 

 in winter production would indicate. Lights make it possible to 

 carry P'ebruary hatched pullets through the first fall and winter 

 production period with much less molting than where lights are 

 not used. It is not generally as profitable to operate lights on 



Fig. 233. — A flock of layers under lights in mid-winter. Eating, drinking and laying at 

 9 o'clock in the evening. 



yearlings or two-year-old hens as it is on pullets. Putting lights on 

 culled hens to get fall and early winter egg production is a question- 

 able practice. It seems much wnser to sell these cull hens and fill 

 the pens which they would occupy with good birds. From actual 

 experiments during the past year at New Brunswick, lights in- 

 creased the profit per bird over feed and fuel cost for a nine months 

 period as follows: 



600 unlighted pullets S3.30 profit per bird 



500 pullets given morning lights 5.07 profit per bird 



100 pullets given an evening lunch 5.48 profit per bird 



The fuel and operating cost during the last winter for providing 

 artificial illumination on 1,100 birds, the current being supplied by 



