Abstract
Daylight and Animal Activity The significance for the activities of animals of the reduction of daylight during the winter months is indicated by the experiments carried out at Harper Adams Agricultural College in connexion with the artificial lighting of poultry. Artificial lighting to control egg production is not a common practice in Great Britain, although it is recognised that scarcity and dearness of eggs throughout the year correspond generally with the falling off of natural daylight. When this is supplemented by artificial light, arranged so that morning and evening lighting is extended to make a uniform 12- or 14-hour day throughout the winter, food consumption and egg-laying both show a marked increase (Bull. No. 6, National Institute of Poultry Husbandry, 1931). In an uncontrolled pen, food consumption reached its lowest during December; in a lighted pen the amount consumed remained much more uniform throughout the year, and each bird used about 4 Ib. more in 48 weeks. The final results show that, allowing for the additional cost of food and lighting, a reasonable profit may be made by thus artificially stimulating metabolism, since lighting causes increased winter production when eggs are dear. For the winter months, the 120 pullets under lights laid 950 more eggs than an equal number of pullets without lights, and for 48 weeks the lighted pen yielded 1,086 more eggs. The price received per dozen was 17-34d., the food cost per dozen 5-26c£., the margin per dozen 12-08cL, and the margin of profit over food and lighting costs per dozen was 11·58d.
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Calendar of Nature Topics. Nature 132, 942 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132942a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132942a0