Solar Powered Chickeneers

The team from Engineers with a Mission has been working on the next version of our solar powered chicken coop. (For our first version, click here.) We have learned some crazy things about chickens, buck buck. It turns out chickens can "see" long wavelengths of light, like red, through a light-sensing organ IN THEIR BRAIN!! I am saying the light passes through their heads and is detected by light sensitive cells in their chicken skulls!! I call it the "chickens' mind eye". Freaky weird, you say? I agree! Read more on ThePoultrySite.com (no kidding) by clicking here.

Turns out the chickens' mind eye has a direct bearing on their egg laying schedule. That's the biology behind our solar powered chicken coop. Shining light, especially red light, makes them want to lay more eggs. This has been done by chickeneers for a long time and is nothing new. What is new, however, is the use of LED lighting!

(Chickeneers and their solar powered sleep deprivation machine for chickens)

Our system uses white LED's, which have a narrow spectrum of wavelengths shifted towards the blue end of the visible spectrum. Will our system, therefore, have enough red wavelengths to inspire the chickens' mind eyes to stay up late and ovulate? We have no idea!! If not, we may try adding some red LED's to the mix and see if it helps. I think I may have to write an actual academic paper about this!