Hurricane force winds - coop destroyed - update on page 2

[FrontPorchIndiana]

Good grief! Thank goodness they're all okay. But what a pain to have to put back together.

I notice you must have a blacksmith in the family? My son is learning the craft.

 

[buck-wild-chick]

That's horrible, glad everyone is OK!

 

[kodiakchicken]

Thanks everyone. It has been crazy. They keep extending the forecast for later and later. Now the winds are supposed to subside sometime tomorrow morning.

I was just out in the garage and except for the fact that the ducks are trying to bully all the hens, all is good. We even got all five eggs today, although Wes broke 2 of them in his coat pocket while trying to to finish stabilizing the coop this morning (hahaha - I learned that lesson a LONG time ago).

Halo, I'm sure you can relate! I'm so glad I had not yet decided to move the old chicks outside. I'd been playing with that idea for awhile. They would have been completely spooked, having never been through any kind of weather. The good news is that now that they are all in the garage they can all kind of get to know each other but still have the wire barrier between them. I did take my favorite roo boy out and set him down amongst the hens. Other than running up to him with their chests out, they were pretty good. No pecking or scratching. I'll continue to give them all moments together and maybe by the time this all ends they'll be ready to interact peacefully. An "integration blessing" in disguise!

These winds are caused by a high and a low meeting, causing storm conditions. Usually they come out of the North, from the direction of the mainland. That's why we built the coop with the door facing West. Unfortunately, this is coming due west off the Shelikof Strait, and the winds just blew right in the front of the coop and lifted it up.

Redhen - we have to thank Michiganwoods for the pool idea. It works great! Once they started to get big enough to hop out of the pool I just got a roll of chicken wire (1") and ran it around the outside of the pool. It would have stood on it's own, but I wove some of those skinny bamboo plant stakes through the wire to stiffen it up. And, to save the wire for future projects, I just zip-tied the wire together where it met and left the rest of the roll attached. Works beautifully.

xke4 - I'm on Kodiak Island. While we do get snow, we don't get nearly as much as the mainland. Usually we are the banana belt of Alaska, benefiting from the warm Japanese currents. We do get these crazy storms though. There was snow blowing earlier but it's only 18 degrees so just no snow to speak of. Hard to believe we were having rain and 40 degrees two weeks ago!

The radio has been out all day and we're desperately hoping no boats were out in this weather. Last February we lost a man in a small boat in this kind of weather. Our "adopted" son works at the harbormaster's office so I'll call him tomorrow morning for an update. He'll probably spend the night fishing dumpsters and cargo containers out of the harbor.

Thanks again for the good wishes. It's definitely a learning experience. Wes said as soon as the wind is down we are going to go get some cable anchors and, come hell or highwater, drive them into that frozen ground and cable the coop down. Not going to take the chance of my babies being blown out to sea again!

 

[kodiakchicken]

Just a quick update. The wind has subsided down to only 20 mph. The local news today said the gusts were as high as 100 mph yesterday and Christmas night. Guess that explains why the coop went over.

We surveyed the damage and other than the right wall, which is still attached but needs to be rebraced on the corners, and the tarp roof, which we needed to replace with plywood anyway, the damage is minimal. We lost a lot of straw and feed, but the rest is small stuff like hinges, door handles, braces, etc.

It's still blowing enough that it would be an effort to go out and try to right the coop, so we'll wait a while longer. Meanwhile, the birds are happily destroying my garage but still laying eggs, so all is good.

Thanks everyone for keeping my spirits up yesterday. I needed it.

 

[Kesta]

hope everything can get back to normal

 

[Birch Run Farm]

My Goodness, so sorry for your disaster! This year has been so difficult for so many. I hope you can get everything fixed, at least you don't have to deal with huge amounts of snow.

 

[English Chick]

Wow those pictures! I don't like the wind at all...I am so glad you are all safe!

 

[Mrs MIA]

LOL! You're such a trooper!
Funny thing is, we get winds like that all the time up here, huh, and no one thinks twice about it.

I agree that cable-ties would be a good idea. Hopefully the ground's not TOO frozen!

 

[EweSheep]

Wow thanks God you are all alright!

 

[kodiakchicken]

Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain :

LOL! You're such a trooper!
Funny thing is, we get winds like that all the time up here, huh, and no one thinks twice about it.

I agree that cable-ties would be a good idea. Hopefully the ground's not TOO frozen!

Yeah, these kinds of winds are fairly normal for this time of year. They usually hit the first time on Thanksgiving or Christmas. But BECAUSE they are so normal, it was a shock to have such damage!!! I was just stunned to walk out and see that coop turned over yesterday morning. We've even been able to secure our trampoline so that it doesn't blow off in these winds (usually the first major "flying saucer", as I'm sure you know) and it was such a shock to see the entire building blown over. It's a HEAVY building!

We'll get those cable ties in the ground one way or another - even if I have to stand out there with a sledge hammer all day!

The only bad news is they just revised the forecast for gusts up to 45mph for the next 3 days. That means no work on the coop and keeping all those birds in my garage - ugh! You should hear Zipper, our lead duck, voicing her disapproval over being locked inside! Talk about a loud mouth.

Thanks again, though. Maybe we'll have a "coop raising" party when the wind dies and we'll serve hot chocolate and homemade chicken noodle soup. Hahaha!​