In Hurricane Sandy's Path? What are YOU doing to prepare?

I moved all my chickens but one out of the smaller coops that heavy winds could blow over. I fed and watered everyone and doubled up on feeders (can't on waterers yet). I will refeed and water again right before the weather turns bad (tomorrow?). I know everyone is good for at least 2-3 days with their feeders and waterers full. I put plastic on any windows I saw as potential problems. I have to plastic the nest box on the Cochin Condo and maybe one window on the big hen shed. I had to goat proof my wood shed for Nettie, my goat since she doens't actually have a stall/shed/pen yet. She is a recent addition. I put all the ice form my ice maker into containers and shoved them in the freezer. I filled every jug I have with water (only 3 so far). I have all my buckets and tubs outside to collect rain water for flushing the toilet. I will move all my freezer food to the big freezer because that will hold for 5 days without power. I need to bring wood in and get the cooler ready.

I have chicks hatching right now and I am yelling at them to hurry up. My mom is on standby to be their foster mom (very begrudgingly) since they have a generator. I wonder if Santa will bring me a generator this year... I've been asking for 5yrs now.

Last year we lost power for 7 days during Irene/Lee. I am worried this year because I don't want to go through it again. I lost most of my 21qft chest freezer full of food, we were out of water to give the chickens, no heat, no nothing. At least this year we have a wood stove, but now I love on top of a hill where wind is already bad. We are surrounded by trees and we didn't have that at the old place. Every one of my coops is in the possible path of a tree or utility pole.

Last year's Damages:
700

700

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My chickens where in that shed. The back corner was a pond of 2" of water.
700

You can actually see the downed power line in that picture.
I didn't include the pics of the minor trees that blew over, broke off or came down. I had 5 Hemlock trees across the end of my driveway. I had a grove of about 15 white birch trees come down, two cockspur hawthornes came down, half the large hemlock behind the house came down... It was bad.
 
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Hurricane Sandy is going to hit my location hard. I have many trees around my coop, i suppose i'll have to take my chickens in the garage. Is this correct? Or will they be safe in the coop

BackyardAnita - I would move the chickens into a garage. The coop on our property was smashed to smithereens in a wind storm last June. Had there been any chickens in it, none would have survived. Better safe than sorry, I'd say!

I moved all my chickens but one out of the smaller coops that heavy winds could blow over. I fed and watered everyone and doubled up on feeders (can't on waterers yet). I will refeed and water again right before the weather turns bad (tomorrow?). I know everyone is good for at least 2-3 days with their feeders and waterers full. I put plastic on any windows I saw as potential problems. I have to plastic the nest box on the Cochin Condo and maybe one window on the big hen shed. I had to goat proof my wood shed for Nettie, my goat since she doens't actually have a stall/shed/pen yet. She is a recent addition. I put all the ice form my ice maker into containers and shoved them in the freezer. I filled every jug I have with water (only 3 so far). I have all my buckets and tubs outside to collect rain water for flushing the toilet. I will move all my freezer food to the big freezer because that will hold for 5 days without power. I need to bring wood in and get the cooler ready.
I have chicks hatching right now and I am yelling at them to hurry up. My mom is on standby to be their foster mom (very begrudgingly) since they have a generator. I wonder if Santa will bring me a generator this year... I've been asking for 5yrs now.
Last year we lost power for 7 days during Irene/Lee. I am worried this year because I don't want to go through it again. I lost most of my 21qft chest freezer full of food, we were out of water to give the chickens, no heat, no nothing. At least this year we have a wood stove, but now I love on top of a hill where wind is already bad. We are surrounded by trees and we didn't have that at the old place. Every one of my coops is in the possible path of a tree or utility pole.
Last year's Damages:


My chickens where in that shed. The back corner was a pond of 2" of water.

You can actually see the downed power line in that picture.
I didn't include the pics of the minor trees that blew over, broke off or came down. I had 5 Hemlock trees across the end of my driveway. I had a grove of about 15 white birch trees come down, two cockspur hawthornes came down, half the large hemlock behind the house came down... It was bad.

Wow - that was a lot of damage. I hope this storm spares you this time! Keep us posted!
 
I am planning to shut the chickens in their coop on Sunday evening and leave them there for the duration of the storm. I think that they will be safest staying inside and I don't plan on letting them out into their run until the worst is past.
 
Hurricane Sandy is going to hit my location hard. I have many trees around my coop, i suppose i'll have to take my chickens in the garage. Is this correct? Or will they be safe in the coop


Last time we had a tropical storm that came thru it was downgraded before it hit us but we still had gusts of 40+. We lost some smaller trees and had bushes and trees laying on the ground after it passed due to wind and so much rain at one time. I had been worried about my flock of 8 chickens and brought them inside. I kept them in our house in boxes with holes poked in them in the dark hallway because I didn't know if the coop could sustain the wind. It was fine the next day so I could have just left them inside their coop.

How sturdy is your coop? Is it small or medium? You can see mine several posts up. It's 5'x10' and built fairly sturdy. It's not hurricane proof, but I'm hoping it will handle the tropical storm winds we are supposed to get on Tuesday.

If you have any doubt, just put them in the garage and be prepared to clean up the mess later. If you have a small tractor you could just move the whole thing inside temporarily.
 
I am planning to shut the chickens in their coop on Sunday evening and leave them there for the duration of the storm. I think that they will be safest staying inside and I don't plan on letting them out into their run until the worst is past.


I plan to do the same and I have to remember to unplug the automatic door opener until this mess is over.
 
Sandy is knocking at my door...I'm in western NJ an hour north of Philly, and originally I was going to lock them in the coop and hope for the best, but my property is surrounded by huge maples and pines, so I think I am going to catch all the girls and corral them in a puppy play pen on a tarp and canvas in my basement til this is over. Seeing that photo of the squashed coop from a branch makes me nervous for my babies!

It's getting ugly already! Good luck everyone!
 
We built a tempory hurricane shelter in a work shed. We have a small coop that isn't anchored to the ground yet. We just moved them in this morning I think they like it our SLW looked like she was getting ready to lay. They will stay dry and be safer from the wind.

Be safe everybody.
 
My coop and chickens were unscathed by the superstorm. The only thing I will need to repair is to dig the netting posts deeper into the ground and maybe provide something to help keep them propped up in the future since I won't be cementing them into the ground.

 
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