Hail storm?

[NHMountainMan]

Sounds like you all are saying that instincts will kick in and they'll take care of themselves ( I don't have silkies). I'll leave them to take themselves out of the bad weather.
Thx everyone

 

[centrarchid]

I would pen birds, and if possible monitor them during storm and check on them afterwards. I have lost immature birds to storms and lost adults do to failure of housing where birds then hurt each other or a fox came in and took some that had nowhere to go. In one extreme event I lost a rooster that got beat up by pen that he was stuck in as it rolled a couple hundred yards over a field. Earlier this year a neighbor struck directly by tornado lost much, much more were he could not even find sign of many chickens lost.

 

[aart]

Sounds like you all are saying that instincts will kick in and they'll take care of themselves

They should...but always good to check, especially with young birds.
Have seen even my adult birds shelter in a not so great space instead of going into the coop.

 

[GC-Raptor]

My chickens are kept in their pen most of the day. I let them out an hour before sunset weather permitting. A showers no problem. A thunderstorm or more severe, I keep them in the pen.
My new pen is 1/3 covered over the coop. has a wind break on three sides, but only 3' high. The south side none. My coops are also raised. .
We are under threat here too. If the winds start to blow things around, I would put them in the coop. GC

 

[Mrs. K]

Well I would not risk my life for the flock. A tornado, or a bad hail storm and there is a good chance you are going to lose at least some of the chickens.

I let chickens be chickens, I have good shelter open and available to them, they make the decisions.

Mrs K

 

[Trevorusn]

Not sure where in southern NH you hail from, but so far from the Monadnock to Nashua its looking like mostly rain all day. Our forecasters have been terrible this week.

 

[mdquilts]

I’m down in Western Mass and we have been having some crazy storms this summer! Our run is half covered. I usually make sure the coop window is shut to keep the wind driven rain out. The chickens got all excited when we had some small hail thinking it was treats. When it got heavier they went in the coop. Hope you don’t get hit with anything serious today. We also have the possibility of a tornado and that really puts me on edge

 

[NHMountainMan]

Not sure where in southern NH you hail from, but so far from the Monadnock to Nashua its looking like mostly rain all day. Our forecasters have been terrible this week.

I'm up north. Looks like we're looking at mostly thunderstorms. This is my first year with chickens and have found great advice on BYC. Last summer we had a microburst that took out a bunch of trees, damaged our roof and we were about a week without power. Since then I tend to pay a little more attention to the local forecast.
So far, the chickens have just tucked themselves under the coop and don't seem to mind today's weather.
Thanks all for the advice and suggestions!

 

[aart]

So far, the chickens have just tucked themselves under the coop and don't seem to mind today's weather.

That's what mine do...unfortunately I had a drainage problem (long story),
during an absolute deluge some of the chickens were under there,
standing in a couple inches of water...the visual I have is vivid...they were fine,
but that's when I started seriously fixing that drainage issue.