Is there such a thing as giving your birds too much light?

I noticed that my neighbor (who is new to chickens) has a light on in his coop all the time. As we live in cold new england i think he is using it as a source of heat for the birds during the cold weather months.

Thank you

The ideal is about 14 hours of light per day. The hens need to cycle and get that good undisturbed sleep on the roost, too. If your friend would use a red bulb for heat, he could put a white bulb on a timer and have it both ways.

My chicks have a 100W light 24 hrs a day, later, 75W, for heat. They sleep regularly, eat and drink and "play' at intervals. Since they run out of feed during the night, can assume they sleep during that interval. While my poultry houses have lights on timers for about 14 hours of light, the birds go to roost at twighlight, whether it is 4:30 in the afternoon or 5:00 or later, they have a built-in rhythm, and while light certainly triggers laying and breeding activity, it really doesn't keep birds up 24 hours, so I would never worry about it--while the 14 hours is determined to be the ideal stimulant hours of light. CJR