So here is the situation -
About a month ago, I decided I wanted to revamp my rabbitry. I have a two car garage, the Rabbit Building, and a drive under garage/basement. I decided it would be nice to move the rabbits to the two car garage. Then I got thinking it would be too hard to heat/cool.
Long story short - Rabbits are moved to the drive under basement (has heat/AC/running water
). Now the rabbit building (which has heat/ac too hehe) is going to be the chicken coop.
It's made out of Freezer panels from my buddy's walk in cooler company. It does get a little damp in there never any puddles but it's on several underground wells. It has a rough concrete floor two windows on either side of the building. It's 17' long, by 8' wide and 9' tall at the front and 6' tall at the back (slopes down to keep the snow off it). Has an insanely high R-factor and heats to about 45 in the winter from just the animals and lighting. Never have frozen water.
So will this size building work for DLM? Also, will it be too small in winter if I want to keep the birds in on bitter cold days? Right now I have 12 chickies brooding. I'm sure several are Roos for the oven, so I'm going to guess on 8 layers. Is this sufficient in size? I have no idea how many peeps can fit in which size building. Is it okay to do DLM in a slightly damp environment? Should I use Shavings/hay/straw? Which would be best in this type of situation?
I do plan on letting them free range once they're about 5 months old. Other than that they'll be locked up tight every night and until they're 5 months. Thanks for any help/advisement.
About a month ago, I decided I wanted to revamp my rabbitry. I have a two car garage, the Rabbit Building, and a drive under garage/basement. I decided it would be nice to move the rabbits to the two car garage. Then I got thinking it would be too hard to heat/cool.
Long story short - Rabbits are moved to the drive under basement (has heat/AC/running water

It's made out of Freezer panels from my buddy's walk in cooler company. It does get a little damp in there never any puddles but it's on several underground wells. It has a rough concrete floor two windows on either side of the building. It's 17' long, by 8' wide and 9' tall at the front and 6' tall at the back (slopes down to keep the snow off it). Has an insanely high R-factor and heats to about 45 in the winter from just the animals and lighting. Never have frozen water.
So will this size building work for DLM? Also, will it be too small in winter if I want to keep the birds in on bitter cold days? Right now I have 12 chickies brooding. I'm sure several are Roos for the oven, so I'm going to guess on 8 layers. Is this sufficient in size? I have no idea how many peeps can fit in which size building. Is it okay to do DLM in a slightly damp environment? Should I use Shavings/hay/straw? Which would be best in this type of situation?
I do plan on letting them free range once they're about 5 months old. Other than that they'll be locked up tight every night and until they're 5 months. Thanks for any help/advisement.