Inclement weather

[Contessa]

I hope this is the right section - if not mods, I apologize...

We're over in OK where the wind comes sweeping down the plains. As luck would have it, we moved the gals to their new home outside on Saturday and it appears we're set for some nastiness today (super cell thunderstorms and high winds of course - I'm assuming we'll have a tornado watch issued at some point). Since their coop is light enough to be moved, we figured we'll drag the whole kit and caboodle into the garage tonight so our feather babies don't get swept away. I don't want them inadvertently starring in the "Chickens of Oz" in real life....

Anyone else do this? And yes I am a little crazy but am totally comfortable with my personal level of insanity....

 

[wildorchid053]

are they cute? cause if they are i will paint OZ on my roof so they will know where to land hehehe. by the way the author of wizard of oz lived about 2 towns over and they have actually painted the side walks yellow

 

[Contessa]

We like them muchly

I think we'd be pretty depressed if they blew away. The chickens had a lot of followers on Facebook too, hahahaha!

That is pretty neat. Much better than the house with black sidewalks a few towns away from where I grew up

 

[columbiacritter]

I certainly would haul them in. Not crazy, just being smart!

 

[KristaChickenWhisperer]

I have hauled my chickens in plenty of times!! I live in Western Washington State so I haven't ever had to worry about tornadoes but a few years back we had below average temps (dipped down into the single digits which is VERY abnormal for us) so to prevent my girls from freezing to death they got to live in our garage with a heater for a few weeks.

We also get some nasty windstorms and have a lot of rotten cottonwood trees in the back. I usually move them inside during those storms as well so they don't get crushed by a tree!!

I am very cautious when it comes to my girls...better to be safe then sorry!

 

[Contessa]

YAY! Thank you! I just feel responsible for them and I don't want them to get hurt.

 

[elmo]

We're on the southern edge of that same weather front, and although they predict it will miss the DFW area, I'm taking no chances. I roofed my coop myself and I'm not too confident that I did it well enough to withstand really strong winds.

So the bantam hen and her chicks that usually sleep in the coop these days will be coming indoors tonight and bunking in a birdcage that I've already outfitted with a nestbox, etc. Our other two bantam hens with their newly hatched chicks are already sleeping indoors in separate dog crates anyway. Not that much more work to have three!

Catching the chicks to bring them in, that's another story. Who would think something that small can run so fast?!

p.s. Good luck and stay safe in this coming storm!

 

[Contessa]

Quote:
Hahaha! They do move!

Thank you so much and I hope you do miss it. I hate these. I actually just finished moving the girls and their coop into the garage. I was afraid if I waited too long I wouldn't have time to get them in.

 

[sacrifice]

A few years back I had to re-do a coop, so I set up a temporary coop for the chickens. It was inside of an 8 X 8 dog kennel (chain linked fence with bird netting covering it so they would not fly away or get eaten). The one problem was that the temp coop was lower than the top of the run, so the chickens loved roosting on the roof at night, as it had some nice, comfy 2 X 4's they could sit on. Anyway, we had a typical winter windstorm with winds in the 50+ MPH range, often hitting much higher than that (think bowing in glass windows higher). The first night I decided that I should go out and check on the chickens, and there they were, very happing hanging on to their roosts seemingly enjoying the wind. It was an interesting sight. And, they survived the ordeal quite well. The only problem was cleaning all the poop off the roof after a month