Hurricane IRENE preparedness for backyard chickens.

[savingpurple]

Be safe everyone!!!

 

[NYC feather fam]

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Beautiful looking flock you have there!

Thank you. I really enjoy the diversity (I think all the Black Copper Marans are hiding in this pic though...I love them!).

Wow, sounds like your flock is off to a rough start. The ones in the coop will get the hang of the roosting thing before too long. They're going to be confused for a while about where "home" is though with the back and forth between the house and coop. When you return them to the coop after the hurricane, I would leave them INSIDE the coop for at least a week before letting them out into the run. This will reinforce the concept of home for them. I always do that with new coop residents. When I do let them out into the run, I keep them confined there for another week or two so that they go back into the coop at night without having to be chased. By the time they're ready to free-range (if you do that) they obediently march back to the run and coop at dusk and tuck themselves in. It's amazing.

Well, stay safe NY!

Yeah, these girls have always amazed me by their resilience and adaptability even if they are highly resistant to change. I've kept them in the coop and run since I moved them in there. They are used to free ranging in the yard typically so I didn't have the heart to confine them to the coop alone. They're adjusting ok so far I think....as you mentioned, the storm itself would be a great stresser to them in the new environment especially, so I would rather know for sure they are safe. I'll keep them confined another week or 2 after the storm so they can really get used to the new place...poor things....

I think the best thing I did when I moved them was support their health/immune systems by feeding them a good mash with probiotics everyday since I've moved them. They're also on sulmet right now cause of the one with coccidiosis....I figured I had better treat them all since they've all had watery poop all summer. Since I've been giving the mash and the meds they seem to be doing really well and laying some beautiful eggs which I promptly have to trash since they're on the sulfa. Sigh. Breaks my heart.....

 

[ADozenGirlz]

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Thanks, Joe. We're going to do the best we can. Snow we understand, hurricanes- not so much.

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Chicken math fears no force of nature. Hurricane preparedness isn't supposed to involve acquiring more chickens, is it? Quite unexpectedly, it did for me! Did I mention that they were FREE! It's Christmas in August!!!

 

[Miss Lydia]

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very pretty, Merry Christmas to you.

 

[ADozenGirlz]

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very pretty, Merry Christmas to you.

Thanks! I'm SO excited. I just learned on BYC that the left two hens are Buff Brahmas and the one on the right is a Welsummer! Wa-hoo!!

How did you fare in the storm Miss Lydia? We're about to get smacked with it in the next 24 hours.

 

[wpalmisano]

Whew, that was close. I have 9 pure Ameracuana Eggs in my GQF Sportsman due to hatch tomorrow for which I paid the astronomical sum of $50.00. Friday I turned up the temperature 1 degree and added a ton of humidity. I have a small generator, but it wasn't going to run the Sportsman so first I dug out my styrofoam Hova Bator, and the mice in the barn had eaten at least half of it. Then I dug out an old antique metal Brower I could use as a hatcher. I set it all up and got it up to temp and humidity, and we haven't lost power! Unreal, I thought they were goners but I was gonna make a fight of it. Plan A was to take the Brower to a relative or friend with power. Plan B was the generator. Moving the whole Sportsman during a storm with eggs would have been a nightmare. Plan C was a Coleman lantern. Anyway, I would say preparedness is to think about what's in the incubator or even your brooder. A back up power source, portability, etc... The ironic thing was we never lost power, but my first choice for a place to bring it lost power right away.
5 have pipped and two have hatched.

 

[fmizula]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNZCxWOjSpQ

some videos i did of areas near my home. all my kids are ok now. going a little stir crazy though!!

 

[ADozenGirlz]

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We are still without power since 5am today and are told not to expect it back for two days. We HAD to get a generator this past January b/c EVERY time I had eggs in the bator, we lost power on our street!

 

[ADozenGirlz]

We JUST got power back to the house today. Four LONG days after the hurricane.