Staci, so good to hear from you! How are the new digs & that cute grand baby?
Kristi, the smaller the breed of rabbit, the shorter their lifespan. Just so you know. Sounds like Irish has quite a few to choose from, as well as cages too.
Jim, I agree with cs, you might have to make a batch (or 5) of those rolls for the bash. Yum!
GG, if you can keep them inside for 2 or 3 weeks, then they will be plenty ready for a move out to the garage after that. Jim broods hundreds of chicks at a time so they have the added body heat to help keep them warm, along with a massive brooder hood. He has quite the impressive setup.
Welcome to the newbies! Hope you like it here. And congrats to the new chicks.
I don't remember who asked as it was quite a few pages back, but someone was asking about coops in winter. If you have a well insulated and properly ventilated coop, then you should not need to heat your coop other than a heated waterer base to keep the water from freezing. Most chickens, especially the large breeds, are much more tolerant of cold than they are of heat. I have a large uninsulated coop with a room in it that I hang a heat lamp in over the roosts. If they so choose, they can go in there to sleep or warm up, but the majority of my birds do not choose to. I have 2 seabrights (very small birds) who spend a lot of time under the lamp when it is real cold out. As long as you, as cs said,
securely attach the lamp (more than once) and be sure to regularly dust down the lamp & the areas around it, you should not have any issues. I have a cage on mine to keep the bulb from falling out of it if bumped. The lamp is also pretty close to the ceiling & offset so as to avoid it getting knocked by an unruly bird. I also have one hung over my 5 gallon waterers, plugged into a thermocube, to help keep the top of the waterer from freezing shut. Nothing worse than trudging out in the freezing cold with 10 gallons of water & not being able to get the waterer open.
I have used heat lamps in my coops for 14 years and have never had an issue with them. You just have to be attentive and make sure you have addressed all the potential problems beforehand. If you go to
TSC, they usually put them on sale for $10 for a 2 pack of them so they really aren't expensive, but they are expensive to run, as are most heating sources. But as I said, if your coop is insulated, you should not need to heat your coop. If you do decide to use a heat source, do the same as you would with chicks and have it offset so they can get away from it. That might mean that those lower in the pecking order might be chased away, but the majority of my birds do not use it much. I mostly have it for my bantams.
The vast majority of my breeds are orps which are pretty heavily feathered. HTH
