Storm warning - half the coop roof got blown away!

[Petra Pancake]

Aaargh!

Today the first serious winter storm ripped half the roof off my coop. I'm telling this as a warning to others and to let off steam. My coop is a bit of a shoestring project and shaped like the letter "L" , built at a 90 degrees angle. One half of the roof is made from plastic boards that are clipped into place and an insulating foam mat. Things held perfectly well for months even in (normal) windy weather until today. Because I knew bad weather was coming up, two days ago I already put a few wooden beams on top of the roof to weigh it down and I was sure that it would hold. Not so. When I came home from work today, we had a storm with torrential rain going on and half the roof, from one side of the "L", had been blown away and parts were strewn around. The chickens were huddled together in the other half of the coop, partially wet because rain was blowing in from the side and the roofless end. The wind was almost knocking me over, I was drenched to the skin and covered with sticky mud while it was getting dark already, sloshing around in the run trying to reassemble the roof parts. I would have photographed the mess but couldn't take my phone or a camera outside in the rain storm. Proper roof fixing was impossible under these conditions, so I just clamped everything back on, tied it into place with a rope and threw in addition to the wooden beams an old, quite heavy bicycle on top to pin things down. So far, it's holding - I hope it will make it through the night

. And of course I hope my chickens will be okay even if they got a bit wet. I've given them extra food and bolstered up the part of the coop that remained intact so that they have some protection even if the other part blows off again. So, moral of the story - if there's a storm warning, take it serious and make absolutely sure that your coop can't be de-roofed or blown over...

 

[sumi]

This is a good reminder! I'm sorry to hear about the damage to your coop and the hassles though. Are everyone o.k. today?

 

[Petra Pancake]

Yes, thankfully the chickens are all okay, even the chicks with their mother. The bicycle and rope held the roof down through the night

and the storm and rain fizzled out already yesterday. Though the inside of the coop got awfully wet - it's not just the roof, I found some other cracks and leaks as well - have to tend to that before the next storm.

 

[sumi]

Glad to hear that! Good use for that old bicycle

In S.A. where I'm originally from, people used to put these huge pumpkins on their flat roofs… I hope the next storm will wait a bit and give you time to make the necessary repairs and improvements!