Chickens During a Storm/Hurricane

[shelabobby]

Hello!

This is our first year with chickens and being that we are on the east coast of NC I am sure Hurricanes and Tropical Storms are going to happen.

We have Omelet Coops so they should be pretty safe from rain and wind inside. We plan to secure them to the ground a bit more before storms just to prevent a chance of tipping with a gust.

My question is what is best to do during the bulk of the storm.

Do we leave them door closed for the duration so we know they are safe? Sometime storms can last 8+ hours so if during the day time they could be closed on for 24hrs.

Food and water in the coop? There is room for them to move around plus have their small feeders.

Or should we open the door for them anyway and try to make their normal feeding/safe space as dry as possible.

They are in a large run with the coop inside so no worries of them running off for safer land.

 

[FunnyBunny89]

That is a good question. I have no experience with hurricanes as I live in the Sierra Nevada foothills of CA, but we do get a LOT of winter wind where we are and a decent amount of snow so I have wondered about this too; whether or not to let the chickens out. So far, with all the reading I have done, it is encouraged to let your chickens out every day because if the weather is bad, they will choose to stay inside the coop if they can't handle it. If you leave them closed in for too long, they can start to get agitated with each other and hurt each other. I would say, if you have an enclosed run that they would be safe in, and you can handle going out there to open the coop, then you can probably do so. If the weather starts to look bad and YOU wouldn't want to be out there, close them up right away. That's just how I would approach it. I hope someone else with hurricane experience can chime in!

 

[WingItRanch]

Hi there! This is my first year with chickens and my 15-week-old pullets just went through Hurricane Beryl! It turned at the last minute and we weren't super prepared. Plus, we live quite a bit away from the coast but man... did we get that storm! Lots of rain but the main issue was the wind. Our coop and run were build by hand and are pretty heavy wood. The roof is made of coorigated metal. No damage!

I didn't lock up the chicks in the coop. They were outside in the run until the wind really kicked up and then they all took shelter in the coop and huddled together. They have a lot of windows with hardware cloth covering and if I was more prepared, I would have covered them with wood but they seemed to do ok! The coop door remained open. They just figured out when it was safe to come out for food and water.

I also highly recommend pelletized pine for the run. When it gets wet, it basically turns into saw dust and really keeps everything clean and mud-free. Perfect for humid wet climates. The poo also clumps with the sawdust making it easy clean up and I no longer have the issue of nasty poo sticking to the birds feet.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

Hurricanes are nothing to healthy chickens. I've been doing this for 3 years now and my chickens ride out every hurricane in the same trees they sleep in. Zero deaths or illness at all

Maybe a severe flood would threaten them but the average hurricane is nothing

 

[swamphiker]

Since Omlet is a lightweight coop, it wouldn't be a bad idea to secure it to the ground. If you're near the coast or somewhere else that can flood, that would be a big concern.

I don't lock the chickens in the coop for hurricanes, though their food and water is located in a part of the run with a roof. When we rebuilt my coop last year, we set posts in the ground with concrete, so I don't think I would bring my chickens indoors. I'm well inland, so the biggest threat is a tree falling on the coop.

 

[SourRoses]

The general rule of thumb for livestock is to leave as many doors and gates open as you safely can. I wouldn't open a gate out to the main road, for instance.
For chickens the main concern of course is predators, but once a storm starts in earnest the predators have all gone off to hide. So hopefully you have a secure run for the birds to jump out to IF your coop starts getting thrashed around or damaged, or if the birds start panicking and leaping against the walls. It's better for the birds to get wet than injured.
Mine are currently out looking like soaked half-chickens in this early band from Debby. They come in for a bit of shelter when the rain is really pelting, and run back out when it tapers off to do their chicken business.

When we thought we were going to get really walloped the year before last, we brought the chickens inside to a spare room in a big tent with shavings and food + water. Kept the light very dim so they stayed calm.

 

[shelabobby]

Thanks for the suggestions and feedback. I think we are going to use some pallets to shore up their food and water area and turn the coops (we have 2. 1 for the roosters when they are older and the one they use now) towards each other. That way they can pick a coop that feels safest and less wind.

We will close them up as normal at sunset and open at sunrise and keep it open during the day. They will have food and water in their coop if they don't want to venture out.

For bigger storms like cat 2+ we will likely put them in the shed for extra security.

We do have some flood risk but both coops are off the ground and they are on the higher ground anyway. If it floods as bad as reaching the coops we have more problems than just the chickens staying safe lol

 

[gizmo48401]

So I just went threw some nasty thunder storms in Michigan this is my first year with chicks ther 5 weeks old we have more bad weather coming in about 48 hrs I can only get in to my basement from outside what is the best thing to do with my chickens if we do have to take shelter in the basement I planned on taking down if I was Abel to. But what about when ther full time in ther coop what are your best suggestions that I do ?

 

[ChaosMom]

Would you be heading to the basement for thunderstorms alone, or in case of tornados?

If it’s “just” thunderstorms, do they have a covered area in their run or coop they can go to? We had a storm yesterday with a brief torrential downpour, and the girls were outside their coop, digging in the litter on the covered side of the run.

For tornadoes, do you have a way of carrying multiple chickens at a time to your basement?

 

[gizmo48401]

Would you be heading to the basement for thunderstorms alone, or in case of tornados?

If it’s “just” thunderstorms, do they have a covered area in their run or coop they can go to? We had a storm yesterday with a brief torrential downpour, and the girls were outside their coop, digging in the litter on the covered side of the run.

For tornadoes, do you have a way of carrying multiple chickens at a time to your basement?

We would only go in basement for tornados or wind that is tornado strength yes ther coop is covered and the has a run attached that is covered I have a second cage serounding it so they have a second uncovered run