INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Soon2BChixMom]

Oh my gosh @Nyla. I am so glad to hear everyone is ok! Take some TLC time because, your body is going to be stiff from the stress of it all.

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

@Pollitos6 How much room do you have for the chickens? I started with a prefab, but now we built a coop. It is nice considering it came from scraps and much sturdier. I wrapped parts of the prefab run so that they had dry areas to stay in, but other than that we didn't do anything else - our weather is different than Indy of course. Prefabs are pretty flimsy, but mine did fine even with the severe negative temps. Whatever you decide, you want 4 sq ft inside per chicken.
Good luck!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

silver laced orps

silver laced orps & blue silver laced orps

black orps (with chance of lacing)

Do these shoes match my outfit?

(This is the fighter who was determined to hatch even though the incubator was set 1.5 - 2 degrees low for all 25 days.) It's already the King of the Brooder and won't let the shoes slow it down.

I've got other chicks but these are the ones that made me very happy. The last two eggs still in the incubator. I believe I slipped them in later, because I didn't want to waste the silver laced orp eggs. Both are pipped tonight.

Gorgeous babies! Rooting for the little trooper!

Today My Son Jayce 2 years old, My Father Stephen, and me were in a car crash! A total of 13 vehicles. But our crash was only us and the semi. The semi who hit us caused the entire crash.
We were driving down I-80 towards Aurora,IL in the far left lane, when all of a sudden a semi driver smashes into us. He smashed into us in our lane then smashed us into the brick wall. My 2 year old son was on the right side of the car that the semi hit. The car is totaled but my son wasn't hurt! Me and my father have minor cuts but nothing too bad.
When the crash was done (us being dragged) we climbed out the car through the drivers window which was flush with the brick wall. As I was unbuckling my son from his car seat, a man tried pulling me out the car forcefully screaming forget the things and get out. I shoved him off of me which made him fall off the wall into the on coming traffic shoulders. He wasn't hurt and no cars where over there. I quickly grabbed my son and climbed out with him. The windows are super tiny so it was hard to get out with us both. Once I got out with him, the guy who tried pulling me out said he was sorry he didn't know I had a baby in the back. Then I checked my son all over for any damage, then changed his cloths so no glass was embedded into his cloths. I then checked myself. Durring which my father was mad and screaming at the semi driver through his window. He refused to get out till police where there. Once police were there, he got out and stood by the cops. Everyone in the crash grabbed up objects and started walking towards the semi driver. When everyone seen I had a baby in my hands they got more mad and all started screaming. I walked up to the semi driver while holding my son and told the man "Just so you know my sons okay". He says to me "I'm glad you two didn't get hurt. Some car cut me off and I ended up rear-ending him. First this I did was try to get over to the shoulder. I didn't have time to check my mirrors. It happened so fast I wasn't even thinking." Then he LAUGHED ABOUT IT!!! It took everything in me not to go at him. Also the car he hit was no where to be seen. Like the car disappeared. This semi who hit us caused the entire wreck. This is how the wreck started. He tried to get over in the lane on his right (we where on his left in the far left lane.) He didn't check his mirrors before getting over. He just tried to get over where he rear-ended a vehicle (that disappeared) and caused another semi to vear out his lane into another car but the car had only damage to their driver mirror and scratches. They were fine. But from our crash and the other crash he caused all of us to come to a sudden halt which caused others to smash into one another.
I'm so grateful that someone(s) was watching over us!
Here is the pictures!

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And here are some videos my father took.

Oh my, someone was looking out for your family! You are probably going to be sore. Thank goodness you are ok.

 

[Pollitos6]

@Pollitos6 How much room do you have for the chickens? I started with a prefab, but now we built a coop. It is nice considering it came from scraps and much sturdier. I wrapped parts of the prefab run so that they had dry areas to stay in, but other than that we didn't do anything else - our weather is different than Indy of course. Prefabs are pretty flimsy, but mine did fine even with the severe negative temps. Whatever you decide, you want 4 sq ft inside per chicken.
Good luck!

Hello,
The chicks are too little so I think I still have about 5weeks head of me to find them the right place . I have an old shed that it’s about 12X10 and I was thinking in fixing it and make it their permanent coop ( once I make it predator proof of course ) . I have also purchased two chicken cage pen 21 sq ft each so they will have 42 sq ft for the run. I hate they need to be inside a cage but we have hawks, eagles where I live , and I’ll be very upset if something happen to them . Here is a pict of them right now and the cage I got .

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

View attachment 1372913 View attachment 1372905 View attachment 1372906
Hello,
The chicks are too little so I think I still have about 5weeks head of me to find them the right place . I have an old shed that it’s about 12X10 and I was thinking in fixing it and make it their permanent coop ( once I make it predator proof of course ) . I have also purchased two chicken cage pen 21 sq ft each so they will have 42 sq ft for the run. I hate they need to be inside a cage but we have hawks, eagles where I live , and I’ll be very upset if something happen to them . Here is a pict of them right now and the cage I got .

Are you handy at all? Maybe build a run off of the shed? Or a 10x10 dog kennel might work. 42 sq ft is a little small for 6 chickens. However, a 10x12 shed is extra room for 6 chickens.
I looked into those cages and if you actually got them, you could convert them to a tractor using training wheels. One of the reviewers on Amazon did that and posted pics.

 

[Pollitos6]

Are you handy at all? Maybe build a run off of the shed? Or a 10x10 dog kennel might work. 42 sq ft is a little small for 6 chickens. However, a 10x12 shed is extra room for 6 chickens.
I looked into those cages and if you actually got them, you could convert them to a tractor using training wheels. One of the reviewers on Amazon did that and posted pics.

Wow I thought 14’ feet cage would be good enough to use as a runner for my 6 chickens . I can maybe use it as tractor . I’ll see how t turn out .

Thanks

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

Wow I thought 14’ feet cage would be good enough to use as a runner for my 6 chickens . I can maybe use it as tractor . I’ll see how t turn out .

Thanks

More room is better. For the run it is recommneded 10 sq ft per chicken - so 60 sq ft. If you have them in that huge shed, it probably won't matter. However, they might not be able to keep warm in the winter in such a huge space.
I am just repeating what I've read. Lots of people in this thread have way more experience than I do.
The cages would be great for chicken tractors though. Not sure how easy they would be to clean out if they stayed in one place.
Ps. I don't do everything that is recomended either, but I think it all evens out.

 

[Finnie]

However, they might not be able to keep warm in the winter in such a huge space.

No need to worry about this. Chickens don't keep themselves warm by heating up their coop. They keep warm by their insulating feathers trapping their body heat and keeping it under their feathers. (Which works very well as long as there is no wind blowing their feathers.)

 

[pginsber]

Finally finished this crazy thing! We've been hardening off our seedlings in preparation for their ventures outside.

If anyone thinks they want to build one too, I'd caution them to think twice. Including my lumber base but not the sand and pavers inside floor, it was over 400 pieces. When I opened the box, I almost cried!

It felt like punishment trying to figure out 22 pages of instructions that had no words. I had to re-do several steps because I couldn't tell it was important to assemble something a certain way BECAUSE THERE WERE NO WORDS SAYING IT WAS IMPORTANT!!!

Anyway, except for finishing the paver floor, it's over and I'm grateful. So far, we've used it every day and NEXT spring it will be a godsend!

 

[JanetMarie]

@Nyla So glad everyone is okay!

@pginsber We have one that I've been using for six years. You'll love it!