Let's talk about hurricanes!

[Jujubeans2008]

Hey everyone!
My husband and I live in Florida. We were on the subject of hurricanes yesterday, and we were puzzled as to what we do with our chickens and ducks during one. This is our second year having chickens, and our first year with ducks. Our chickens and ducks are housed in the same pen at night time. However, the ducks do not enjoy sleeping in the coop, they prefer to sleep in the run at night. In the event of a hurricane, what do you do with your flock? The only "plan" we have come up with is locking our chickens and ducks in the coop, and boarding up the door, so none of them can get out into the run.
Thanks!
Julie

 

[dotknott]

That's basically our plan, granted we're in New England and tend to get those storms a little less severely.

Try to make the coop as secure as possible and if something does happen where you have birds that get lose, put some feed out so they have something it they come back and can't get in right away.

 

[Jujubeans2008]

Thanks! We just want them to be as safe as possible, but we are unable to bring them inside because my husband's family, and their animals will be staying with us as well, in the event of a hurricane. We never thought about this kind of stuff until we were home owners, and got "outside" animals.

 

[zchryjmsbnntt]

Thanks! We just want them to be as safe as possible, but we are unable to bring them inside because my husband's family, and their animals will be staying with us as well, in the event of a hurricane. We never thought about this kind of stuff until we were home owners, and got "outside" animals.

@Jujubeans2008
i feel you and i are pretty much on a similar level to this duck game thing lol. but this thought literally never crossed my mind. we haven't had a really bad hurricane season since 2004 so I'm sure we're due for one soon.

keep the great questions coming and i'll just follow behind you LOL

 

[TLWR]

If we hunker down, we have straps for the hut to strap it down. If it gets nasty, we have three bathrooms we could in theory bring them into. Another option for us is maybe the garage, but likely not as it will just be way too hot locked up in the garage.

 

[Amiga]

We have sixteen small ducks. Originally, we had eleven, and their night shelter was outdoors. I did clear out an area in our walkout basement at that time to be the "duckie storm shelter." We used it as such during a bit storm - we all, cats, ducks, and me, spent about 12 hours down there.

Their first winter, I learned some of my Runners were not cold hardy at all - so I moved them into the storm shelter every night. That worked out well. In the spring, they were back in the outdoor night shelter.

Then one day I decided that rather than move them back and forth, I'd make the storm shelter their regular night shelter.

Won't work for everyone - number of ducks, layout of the house and yard - but I offer this as an example of using what we have. In our case, we don't have a sturdy barn, but we do have a walkout unfinished basement.

I think if I were going to leave mine outdoors in a rip snorting storm, I would be sure to reinforce the roof of the pen, and make sure gates and doors are well attached. Half inch metal hardware cloth firmly affixed could keep some projectiles from flying into the shelter, as well.

What about high water? Want to think about that, too.

 

[Jujubeans2008]

@Jujubeans2008
i feel you and i are pretty much on a similar level to this duck game thing lol. but this thought literally never crossed my mind. we haven't had a really bad hurricane season since 2004 so I'm sure we're due for one soon.

keep the great questions coming and i'll just follow behind you LOL

Haha! Thanks! I know, that's why I'm asking. It's been so long since we've had a bad hurricane, I know we are due for one. I could stick them in one of my bathrooms, but the bathroom has a window in it, so I'm not sure how "safe" that would really be.

 

[Jujubeans2008]

If we hunker down, we have straps for the hut to strap it down. If it gets nasty, we have three bathrooms we could in theory bring them into. Another option for us is maybe the garage, but likely not as it will just be way too hot locked up in the garage.

Where do you tie the straps down at? That's a great idea.

We have two bathrooms, but they both have windows in them, they are also really small. I don't think that we could house four ducks and 13 chickens in it. We also don't have a garage. We have a shed, but it's less sturdy than our coop. Haha!

 

[Jujubeans2008]

We have sixteen small ducks. Originally, we had eleven, and their night shelter was outdoors. I did clear out an area in our walkout basement at that time to be the "duckie storm shelter." We used it as such during a bit storm - we all, cats, ducks, and me, spent about 12 hours down there.

Their first winter, I learned some of my Runners were not cold hardy at all - so I moved them into the storm shelter every night. That worked out well. In the spring, they were back in the outdoor night shelter.

Then one day I decided that rather than move them back and forth, I'd make the storm shelter their regular night shelter.

Won't work for everyone - number of ducks, layout of the house and yard - but I offer this as an example of using what we have. In our case, we don't have a sturdy barn, but we do have a walkout unfinished basement.

I think if I were going to leave mine outdoors in a rip snorting storm, I would be sure to reinforce the roof of the pen, and make sure gates and doors are well attached. Half inch metal hardware cloth firmly affixed could keep some projectiles from flying into the shelter, as well.

What about high water? Want to think about that, too.

I wish we had a basement! We don't even have a garage. lol. We have a shed, but it's not as sturdy as our coop, and it has more trees around it.

How would you reinforce the pen? We have hardware cloth around our pen.

We don't get high water. We are at the top of a hill, all of the water, thankfully, runs down.

 

[Amiga]

I was thinking something like extra framing over the shelter - I cannot remember your exact setup..

Strapping with those giant metal corkscrews some people use - for fastening ropes and leads.