New Themometer

[lighthawk]

I assume that by river rocks you are referring to the shape and not that they actually came out of a river. Some neighbors built a fire ring that used stone from the water and the first fire actually exploded one of the stones seriously injuring one of their children. I don't know if 500 degrees would be hot enough to do that but please be certain that if you try that the rocks you use did not come from underwater. Best to err on the side of caution. Rich

 

[95yj]

how cold does it get in north carolina, i live up in mass and while its not THAT cold in can get well below zero on a cold night and i'll usualy go through the entire winter without giving supplementary heat on more than 1-2 of the coldest nights -30 degrees at least. and i do not in any way have a well insulated coop. or are you raising japanese or some other less hardy [for lack of better words] breed. or do you just really love your chickens, nothing wrong with that.

 

[JimWWhite]

I have 19 Gold Comet pullets all under a year old. In the winter the daily temp most days is in the mid to high 40's during December and January, but at night it drops down to the high 20's or low 30's. Sometimes we'll get a Canadian blast coming down and we'll have days in the 30's and nights in the teens. My coop is well sealed but it doesn't have any insulation. I plan on rectifying that this weekend. I probably won't be using heated rocks to put in the coop to radiate heat during the night but we'll see how low it goes. Right now the Gals are keeping the coop warm with their own body heat even when we get below 25 F.