Chicken Coop Upgrade?

Since my return from my European travels I have noticed my hens have been slowing down their production which surprised me so early in their youth.  Consultation has revealed that the girls need light therapy in order to get “regular” again.  As my usual handyman (brother John) was busy elsewhere I thought “I can do this myself”. 

I had already set up the wiring for the winter heating so I thought all I needed to do was get a proper light to plug in.  First, though, I needed to remember how to set up my light timer which took about an hour of fiddling with but that was done.  I happened to notice one of the cages for an old work light and I thought this would be a good short term solution to the light problem.  Off I went to the local Home Hardware where I found what I wanted without any help from the staff.  I patiently waited in the lineup at the cash counter only to hear that the debit machine was out of order.  I didn’t have any cash with me so I had to put my purchase back.  What to do?

I headed into the next town to the new Peavy Mart and even got lucky in finding an employee right off the bat who guided me down to the electrical department.  Now something in my mind said “I need a 2 prong, not a 3 prong” but I couldn’t remember why I was thinking that.  So the young fellow told me all about the safety feature of a 3 prong plug and although I was doubtful I took the 3 prong.  Sure enough when I got everything rigged up in the coop I discovered that the timer was only able to use 2 prong plugs.  Great.  I postponed my trip another day and headed back to Peavy Mart because the price was considerably cheaper than the Home Hardware price.  This time I waffled between getting the 2 prong light fixture or the 3 prong timer.  I thought it was a great idea to have a remote control so I chose the timer.

Back home I decided to read the instructions. What instructions you may ask?  There were no instructions because all you did was plug the sucker in and hit the remote.  Well, what kind of timer was that?  I had to drag Mom out of her room to test with me and the result was that I would have to go outside the house to hit the remote at 4 a.m.  Which I did but only to discover that I could not do it from the porch, I had to walk half way to the coop before the light would go on.

I am now $50 in the hole and realize that I should have stuck with my first instinct, get the 2 prong light switch, use the old timer and remember from now on to listen to my first instinct.  A one hour operation has now turned into a 5 day event.

Who ever thought that humans had evolved to their betterment?