Preparing for floods

trifecta

Songster
7 Years
Mar 20, 2012
172
12
104
Laidley, QLD, Australia
So, Cyclone Debbie is working her way through QLD right now. Flooding is forecast for our area starting on Thursday and I'm trying to figure out what the heck to do with everyone. Right now I have 3 separate pens of birds.

Pen 1: small tractor with cull roosters. Worst case maybe I will spend my flood day butchering if needed to make indoor space for the other birds (perhaps even tomorrow night). I was planning on doing this in 2 weeks but it may be the most sane option just to do this early.

Pen 2: new Indian Games that are in quarrantine. This is the big pickle as they have only been here for 10 days so far. They are living in a 700 vari kennel in my fenced veggie patch- they go out to the veggie patch to till during the day and sleep in the crate at night.

Main coop: 12 birds total; 2 roosters and 10 hens/pullets.

I have some cinder blocks and wood pallets that I can use to raise the coop. The main coop is a tractor, and the house is a Queenslander style (2 story) so I can potentially roll the tractor under the house to provide better weather protection in case its windy. This will not resolve the flooding issue per say but will provide overall better wind/water protection (their tractor is an aviary-style since we are subtropical).

Option 2: if cull roosters are gone, move Pen 1 into the house on the enclosed verandah. cover floor with tarps and deal with mess later. The birds will be very, very cramped, but hopefully its only for 48-72 hours while it floods and recedes. Move quarrantine birds under house and put vari kennel up on several pallets to keep out of the floodwater.

Option 3: move all under house, lift coops/pens with blocks/pallets, and deal with (potential) respiratory disease later.

Option 4: take down electronet run and allow chickens in main coop to go up into trees. Don't know if they would figure this out on their own, plus doesn't solve wind/general lack of shelter issues.

I'm going to try to source some extra hay bales today as well just to make sure there is enough bedding, etc on hand.
 
I've been getting updates from a friend in Australia on the storm, my thoughts are with you all.

I'd go with Option 3, move everyone under the house. You may or may not have to deal with medical issues later but that would give them all a safer temporary space. If you have time to cull some (or all) the roosters, do that and at least reduce any roo-related issues that might come up.

Best of luck to you, stay safe!
 
Yikes!!

Option 3 will get them up off the ground enough?
You probably don't know for sure....might want to designate a room upstairs to chuck them all into if necessary.

Scary.....wishing you the best of luck.
 
Yikes!!

Option 3 will get them up off the ground enough?
You probably don't know for sure....might want to designate a room upstairs to chuck them all into if necessary.

Scary.....wishing you the best of luck.


Thank you. I'm not sure that under the house will get them up enough at all. We have plenty of space to move them inside- just not necessarily in cages/pens. I am going to try to leave work early today and cull the roosters. The pen they are in is the most mobile and it would be possible to get that up the stairs into the house. Tarps and straw down and voila indoor chickens. I can keep the varikennel on the opposite side of the verandah so there will be a couple of doors between them. Everyone would be cramped but dry.

I grabbed some extra straw bales yesterday. We have lots of water and chook food ( plus extra water for ourselves and the dogs).

The weather forecasters are so unpredictable- some saying 60ml of rain, others 150-200 in the first day. At least if they are all under the house we won't have to go too far to get them upstairs.

I guess I should also take the battery and solar panel down for the auto door too.
 
@trifecta please stay safe and keep us posted on how things go.
 
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Good news- it's stopped raining. And, under the house stayed nice and dry. We fared much better than areas north of us- no structural damage at all.
Bad news- we are stranded. But we have power and plenty of food.
 
@trifecta glad to hear the rain has stopped and you have your power and food.
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