Shall we do a little math.

[DoubleDogFarm]

Starting Oct 1, 2012 and ending Dec. 21, 2012.
[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/DayLighttable_zpsd86c90db.jpg[/img]

I believe we are losing about 2.33 average minutes daylight per day until Dec. 21, 2012.

I want to add equal increments of artificial light, in the duck house, until I reach 16Hours (960m) on Dec 21 2012. Natural light on Dec 21 is 8hrs 26m (506m) 960m - 506m = 454m of artificial light.

454m / 82 days = 5.54 minutes I would have to add daily except we loss 2.33 minutes daily.

Oct 1, I add 5.54 minutes
Oct 2, I add 11.08m plus 2.33m = 13.41m
Oct 3, I add 16.62m plus 4.66m = 21.28m
Oct 4, I add 22.16m plus 6.99m = 29.15m
Oct 5, I add 27.70m plus 9.32m = 37.02m

Am I looking at a 7.87 minute a day increase

Does this look right?

Eric

[cynthia_h]

The loss of daylight hours doesn't appear to be linear. In October, just looking at the times (and not performing a calculation), it seems to be on the order of 3.5 minutes/day that are lost. But by December, sunset has "flattened out" at approx. 4:18:00 p.m. and the lost daylight per day is approx. 1.5 minutes.

I'm not sure precisely how you want to adjust the light for the ducks, but does this non-linearity factor into it?

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[rainbowgardener]

Nice observation, cynthia. Does it matter that much, Eric? Are the lights only on when it is dark out?

[DoubleDogFarm]

I'm making this overly complicated. A little fun brain exercise.

The loss of daylight hours doesn't appear to be linear. In October, just looking at the times (and not performing a calculation), it seems to be on the order of 3.5 minutes/day that are lost. But by December, sunset has "flattened out" at approx. 4:18:00 p.m. and the lost daylight per day is approx. 1.5 minutes.

I'm not sure precisely how you want to adjust the light for the ducks, but does this non-linearity factor into it?

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

I turned the non-linearity factor into an average.
3.5 + 1.5 = 5 / 2 = 2.5 So in the 82 day period the average is 2.33

RBG,

It would be nice to only have the lights on during dark hours. I could easily just leave the lights on 16hrs. In order not to shock the ducks, I would like to gradually build up to 16hrs.

Eric

[Charlie MV]

[img][img]https://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd5/charliemv/wyliereading.jpg[/img][/img]

[DoubleDogFarm]

Eric

[applestar]

You know math is not my forté
Is this similar to what you are trying to do?

If you have already had hens come out of lay, due to the fall, you can stimulate them back into lay by setting your timer for 20 minutes before dawn, then turning it 20 minutes earlier every week until 15 hours of day length is reached. Your hens should come back into production within 4-6 weeks of this stimulation (it takes that long for the hormone cascade to result in egg production).... 

https://communitychickens.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-chicken-vet-on-supplemental.html#.UGW-6_F5mSN

[DoubleDogFarm]

You know math is not my forté
Is this similar to what you are trying to do?

If you have already had hens come out of lay, due to the fall, you can stimulate them back into lay by setting your timer for 20 minutes before dawn, then turning it 20 minutes earlier every week until 15 hours of day length is reached. Your hens should come back into production within 4-6 weeks of this stimulation (it takes that long for the hormone cascade to result in egg production).... 

https://communitychickens.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-chicken-vet-on-supplemental.html#.UGW-6_F5mSN

Yes. I was thinking smaller increments but 15 or 20 minutes is standard.

Eric

[Charlie MV]

I don't think ducks can tell what time it is as illustrated here:




But if they can.... how about wabbit lights?

[/img][img]https://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd5/charliemv/images.jpg[/img]