Chickens during hurricane advice

[mellomyst]

What should I do with chickens if I have to evacuate for a hurricane?

 

[centrarchid]

I would take them with me.

 

[BigECarter]

The Chicken-Chick has a good article:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2011/08/hurricane-preparedness-for-backyard.html

If there is any chance of flood, you need to leave their coop open so that they can get to safety. Also, I would look into banding them with a phone number on the bands. Ask a friend or neighbor who is not evacuating to check on them once it is safe.

 

[mellomyst]

I was thinking about taking them with me. If I was evacuating I wouldn't leave any of my animals behind. Just not sure where I would go with them besides my mother's house.

 

[DerbyChook]

What a good question. I had never though about this before. We don't usually have hurricanes where I live, but you never know these days. Good to be prepared.

 

[BigECarter]

Best to be prepared, but your number one priority has to be your family's safety. So many people died in Hurricane Katrina because they had nowhere to evacuate with their pets. As a result, FEMA now have shelters that take pets, but we are out of luck with our chickens.

I have a small enough flock that I will crate them and take them with me.

 

[magnoliasouth]

I don't presently own any chickens (I'm just so afraid to get started) but I grew up in a hurricane zone (presently I live in a 1st strike zone and Katrina damaged my house) and one thing our non-evacuating neighbor did was use her children's pool inside the house as a coop. They put the pool under a table (I think it was a card table) and put mosquito netting over it (like a table cloth) and tucked it under the pool. I'm sure you could use anything else like a sheet or whatever. In any case, they seemed happy.

I remember wishing that we had chickens that we could bring in the house!

If I did have chickens and we did have to evacuate, they would have to go with me, just like my dogs. I forge great attachments to animals.