First, let’s talk about your garage. What kind of temperature range do you have out there? What are your highs and lows? If you are inside your house the temperatures are likely to be pretty constant, which makes getting the heat right in a small brooder fairly easy, but I brood outside in my coop. One morning I had a low of 18F. Two afternoons later it was the reverse, 81F. That’s a bit more challenging to handle. I’m sure your garage will not see that significant a temperature swing, but it’s likely to see some, especially if you also keep a vehicle in there and open and close the door.
There are two risks in a brooder as far as heat goes, too cold or too warm. What you want is one area warm enough in the coldest of temperatures and an area cool enough in the warmest temperatures. Mine are really good either straight out of the incubator or from the post office at finding a temperature that is comfortable to them as long as they have that option. There are several different ways to provide that warm spot; heat lamps, heating pads, emitters, those heat plates ctken mentioned, and others. They all have their advantages, limitations, and cautions, but they all can work. The main ways to provide the cooler spot is size and ventilation. Heating pads and heat plates don’t need as much room to cool down as heat lamps, though if you are in a constant temperature location your can do better with them than if the you have a big temperature swing even with smaller brooders. With heat lamps you can adjust the heat by adjusting the height, switching to different wattage bulbs, or maybe adjusting them so only part of the heat is going in the brooder with the rest going on the outside. Some people use a dimmer switch to adjust the heat output. But in a small brooder you may not be able to let the far end cool off as much as it should.
I use heat lamps in my 3’ x 6’ brooder built into the coop and brood in there with temperatures below freezing and in the heat of summer. It has good ventilation up high and good breeze protection down low where they are. My main caution with heat lamps is, if you decide to use it and not return it and switch to another method, is to throw away that clamp so you are not even tempted to use it and wire it into place. Don’t use string that can melt or burn, use wire. Support it in a way that neither you nor the chicks when they get bigger can knock it down. To me, that clamp causes more heat lamp fires than anything else.
That warning to keep the heat lamp 36” from anything combustible reminds me of a warning I once saw on a step ladder, if you climb on this ladder, you might fall. They were not talking about the top step only, any step. Ridiculous, why else would you but a ladder if not to climb on it? Why would you buy a heat lamp if not to heat? If you are heating your bedding anywhere near combustible temperatures, you are going to cook your chicks. Make sure you don’t melt the sides of that brooder. But use your senses to determine with your choice of bulb wattage and distances are causing a risk from that heat. Touch things and see how hot they are getting.
And yes, those shavings are combustible. Many people use shavings as bedding and heat lamps for the heat source without starting fires, even with the heat lamp much closer than 36”.
I don’t know what the right answer for you is. How many chicks, how long will you keep them in the brooder before they go to the coop, your temperature swings, and other factors I just don’t know about? We are all unique in many ways. If your coop is ready, you have reliable electricity to it, and no adults there now you could brood in the coop, many of us do. If you need a larger brooder in a garage, getting an appliance box or maybe two and taping them together can work as a brooder. If you decide to go another route, come back and ask. With any of them there are tricks that can make it better, things to avoid, and certain limitations. You have some good people responding to your thread that use different methods. They can help you out. They just don’t ramble as much as I do.
One last note. You can do this. Lots and lots of people are quite successful brooding chicks even when they do a lot of things wrong. If you do things right there should be less stress on you but those chicks are a lot tougher than you’d think. They can handle much wider temperature ranges than you often see mentioned on here. Keep your brooder dry (that’s important) and give them a chance to manage their temperatures and they normally do great.
Good luck!
