The Red Glow

I don't think you can call the weather this year typical for our area.  We had torrential rains all summer and then fire hazard dryness most of the fall.  Winter? Record lows are apparently on the menu.  I'm no where near being considered a farmer but I will say this, how they protect animals during extremely cold temperatures is amazing to me.

Our single-digit solution was a heat lamp and bunny sleepover.  Let me explain.

Unfortunately we lost Moonpie on Christmas Day.  Jelly Bean, her twin sister, continues to grow at amazing rates and Oreo has fattened up for the winter.  So we brought the pair inside the basement for a couple days to protect them from the 5 degree lows and -15 wind chills.  My little ones thought it was awesome and proceeded to feed them snacks and let them hop around the basement.  After playtime, we decided separate sleeping quarters were in order so we wouldn't have new little bunnies as a late-winter surprise.

The chickens were a little more complicated since I didn't see convincing the hubby to let me bring 10 chickens into our newly finished basement.  Instead he came up with the idea of a heat lamp.  Two extension cords and a replacement bulb later, the red glow of 250 watts was peaking through the doors of the coop. The ladies weren't too sure at first.  It's been a while since they huddled under that glow back in April.  But, the next morning when I let them out, not all of them chose to leave the coop immediately.

We now have a solution for those really cold days with plastic sleepover bins ready for the rabbits and the heat lamp still installed in the coop ready to plug in.  So bring it winter and if you could at least add some pretty snow with the record lows, the kids and I would appreciate it!