How to deal with chickens and hurricanes??????

I have 18 chickens. If a major hurricane were to roll in here, my previous plan was to load them up in cages and evacuate. I have plenty of cages to do that. I've changed my mind about this due to the stressfulness on the birds and have decided to just leave the pen/run open and hope for the best when I return. Chickens are survivors and have managed to survive many storms through the centuries. I've built my coops to withstand a cat 1 hurricane. They've held up nicely during Frances, Jeanne, Faye, remnants of Charlie and recently Beryl. Albeit they were tropical storms by the time they hit us, they were a good test on the coops and chickens, and everything turned out ok. I believe alot of folks in the gulf areas let their chickens fend for themselves or 'business as usual" when the big ones rolled in over your way...Ivan, Katrina etc... while they evacuated, they left their chickens behind. I'd definitely do the same, but the choice is yours.

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Originally Posted by Cantonmentchickenmama 

Thanks,  I think I plan to do the same I will probably batten down the hatches as much as possible, bring my babies inside, and ride the storm out. I do have enough cages to load them up, but I don't want to stress them out.

I think the important thing to remember especially if a cat 3 and above hurricane comes in is to evacuate yourself and family first and foremost...everything else is secondary. Human lives are more important.

Been there.  Done that.  Brought everything with feathers in the house.  The horses stayed out side and did fine.    I will point out while we got wind and rain, the water receded very quickly.  The house and barn was not flooded.  If I had to evacuate and lived on the coast, I'd probably try to take the birds with me.  I know my smaller pet birds would go with me.

Leaving the hens loose if you evacuate without them is probably the best option.  I will probably try to find a way to put my phone number on their leg bands.  

I had a friend who put her parakeet's cage under a cabinet where it would be safer from potential debris during hurricane Katrina.  Nobody expected flooding as far east from the eye.