How would you protect your animals from nuclear fallout?

[MarGyver7]

Honestly, I think you are probably as prepared as you can be. I haven't even planned at all for my chickens, the only farm animals I currently have. My husband and I are looking for land to do what you have, living off grid on a homestead, away from a lot. Bringing your few chickens inside might be as best as you can do, in just 30 mins. I say this for a few reasons. First being, how will you hear of a strike? By the time you know of it, it might be too late to do much besides get to your shelter. Second, the amount of animals and their waste would overwhelm a building, without proper ventilation, very fast. If the building is ventilated for the animals, you might as well just leave them where they are. Third, how do you plan on going out to feed the animals? Pigs and others might just eat any and all food you left out, so they would be hungry and out of food, forcing you to go out and feed and water, compromising any building they are in. Again, might be best just to leave them where they currently live and hope that having to take shelter won't last weeks

Honestly, I think you are probably as prepared as you can be. I haven't even planned at all for my chickens, the only farm animals I currently have. My husband and I are looking for land to do what you have, living off grid on a homestead, away from a lot. Bringing your few chickens inside might be as best as you can do, in just 30 mins. I say this for a few reasons. First being, how will you hear of a strike? By the time you know of it, it might be too late to do much besides get to your shelter. Second, the amount of animals and their waste would overwhelm a building, without proper ventilation, very fast. If the building is ventilated for the animals, you might as well just leave them where they are. Third, how do you plan on going out to feed the animals? Pigs and others might just eat any and all food you left out, so they would be hungry and out of food, forcing you to go out and feed and water, compromising any building they are in. Again, might be best just to leave them where they currently live and hope that having to take shelter won't last weeks

Great points tripletfeb!

True, if a SATAN 2 hypersonic missile was fired at us from across the pond, most people would only have ~ 4 minute heads up through the Emergency Broadcast System warning that would flash across cell phones and tv, but I've been assured by my friend at the D0D that the US has non-publicly disclosed (but not classified) automated technology that would take out missiles before touching down, which is reassuring to know for the targeted areas, but it will not prevent fallout and missile debris from coming down, nor the affects of the EMP, so I already have faraday cans packed with backup electronics.

The 30 mins to fallout touchdown is the bare minimum time (and 2 weeks is the maximum needed to take cover)....the further away from the blast area, the longer you have to reach shelter, plus we have hazmat suits/respirators to protect us and a geiger counter to let us know when radiation starts to increase. These will also protect us and let us know if it's safe if we want to check on and feed the animals after a couple of days. The bird coop is right next to the greenhouse, and since they lived in it last winter, (and they know it's full of greens and veggies), they always run to the door wanting to get in when I let them out to forage (but I keep it closed now to protect the crops) so it will be an easy task to get them in there swiftly.
Perhaps I could do drills to see how fast we can suit up and get the animals to safety lol, but I think with everything set up ahead of time, we could manage it in under 30 minutes.

The green house and home has large vestibule areas to use as clean rooms so we can decontaminate before entering the area where the animals are. In my first post I mentioned I would install NBC (Nuclear-Biological-Chemical) filters in the green house since I still have a bunch left on the roll of filter fabric after I made the filtration system for our shelter. This filter fabric is what they use on the space shuttles and ISS so I am confident it will keep their intake air clean while allowing ammonia fumes from waste to escape.

As far as food and water goes for the pigs, goats, and birds, I plan to leave more than enough grains, plus many bails of hay, so even if the pigs and goats engorge themselves on the grains all at once, they will have more than enough hay and oat bails to last.

Another concern is not being able to milk my girly goat for days...she will be very uncomfortable but that's better than suffering radiation sickness!

And another question I have is....instead of giving them potassium iodide (that's what people take for max 2 weeks following a nuke event....but have no idea idea if it is safe for animals), I have kelp iodine supplements and apple pectin supplements (pectin binds to radioactive isotopes that are ingested through food and water) and I'm wondering if I should add some to their emergency water stores, and if so, how much per gallon?

 

[MarGyver7]

If you have access to an excavator, and don't mind digging up around your greenhouse. Pushing a few feet of earth up against the walls, may help. Plan B: keep an incubator & a handful of eggs safe in that shelter of yours, you may need to start over if plan A doesn't work out!

Great idea @15 and me!

I planned on grabbing a carton of eggs to bring to the shelter to eat, but didn't think of grabbing my incubator! I will just keep it in the shelter for now unless I need to use it.

Actually, we do have a backhoe and our greenhouse is already buried 4 feet into the ground.

 

[MarGyver7]

so now there’s just a pee room in your house?

We just think of it as a dog sized litter box.... the cats have a normal size litter box in the same room, other than that it's just tool and building material storage.

 

[Nyhillbillies]

 

[MarGyver7]

I used to work at a dog boarding facility. This is actually more common than you think, especially if the person lives in an apt building on a top floor. Puppy pee pads are used a lot. I know the OP doesn't live in an apt, I'm just saying...

We have tried puppy pads but these are 4 big dogs (Great Pyrenees and Black Labs) so just one pee spot would totally overwhelm several puppy pads (even if they hit dead center) but a thick layer of kitty litter absorbs everything and clean up is much easier, but perhaps I should consider adding a few more inches if we have to be gone for days lol.

 

[MarGyver7]

that’s why dog walkers are so prevalent in big cities.

no chance i’m devoting a whole room to a doggie bathroom.

I never said it was the whole room....but think of the alternative if you had to leave your dogs alone for an extended period of time.... I'd rather scoop up kitty litter in one area than shampoo the carpets all over the house.

 

[MarGyver7]

Then... don't? They don't use it every day every time, it sounds like they use it more so when there isn't another option

That's correct....we hope for everyone's sake on the planet that we will never need it!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I like the idea.

 

[MarGyver7]

YO!....G'mornin @Nyhillbillies

 

[tripletfeb]

Great points tripletfeb!

True, if a SATAN 2 hypersonic missile was fired at us from across the pond, most people would only have ~ 4 minute heads up through the Emergency Broadcast System warning that would flash across cell phones and tv, but I've been assured by my friend at the D0D that the US has non-publicly disclosed (but not classified) automated technology that would take out missiles before touching down, which is reassuring to know for the targeted areas, but it will not prevent fallout and missile debris from coming down, nor the affects of the EMP, so I already have faraday cans packed with backup electronics.

The 30 mins to fallout touchdown is the bare minimum time (and 2 weeks is the maximum needed to take cover)....the further away from the blast area, the longer you have to reach shelter, plus we have hazmat suits/respirators to protect us and a geiger counter to let us know when radiation starts to increase. These will also protect us and let us know if it's safe if we want to check on and feed the animals after a couple of days. The bird coop is right next to the greenhouse, and since they lived in it last winter, (and they know it's full of greens and veggies), they always run to the door wanting to get in when I let them out to forage (but I keep it closed now to protect the crops) so it will be an easy task to get them in there swiftly.
Perhaps I could do drills to see how fast we can suit up and get the animals to safety lol, but I think with everything set up ahead of time, we could manage it in under 30 minutes.

The green house and home has large vestibule areas to use as clean rooms so we can decontaminate before entering the area where the animals are. In my first post I mentioned I would install NBC (Nuclear-Biological-Chemical) filters in the green house since I still have a bunch left on the roll of filter fabric after I made the filtration system for our shelter. This filter fabric is what they use on the space shuttles and ISS so I am confident it will keep their intake air clean while allowing ammonia fumes from waste to escape.

As far as food and water goes for the pigs, goats, and birds, I plan to leave more than enough grains, plus many bails of hay, so even if the pigs and goats engorge themselves on the grains all at once, they will have more than enough hay and oat bails to last.

Another concern is not being able to milk my girly goat for days...she will be very uncomfortable but that's better than suffering radiation sickness!

And another question I have is....instead of giving them potassium iodide (that's what people take for max 2 weeks following a nuke event....but have no idea idea if it is safe for animals), I have kelp iodine supplements and apple pectin supplements (pectin binds to radioactive isotopes that are ingested through food and water) and I'm wondering if I should add some to their emergency water stores, and if so, how much per gallon?

You seem pretty dead set on these plans, which is totally fine, you do you. However, like others have mentioned, I think shelf stable foods and things would be more realistic to have. Any eggs or meat from the animals, I don't think I would be comfortable consuming. And I have no idea how you would treat the animals with the iodine, or if they would even need it. Have some pills for yourself, I think everyone should to be honest. I have two nuclear power plants within a few counties of me so I have pills. But those pills are just to prevent thyroid cancer from the fallout