Peeps in Europe!

[BDutch]

Well, I finished "buttoning down the hatches" so to speak...checked and rechecked my coop and run. Made sure that the plastic wrap that I enclosed the run with in November was secured and now awaiting for this storm to hit us. They are saying that we will be one of the hardest hit areas and have already canceled school. Two weeks ago, I put in for a weeks vacation so I will be safe, at home with my girls and wife.
Hopefully, those of you in the Netherlands are safe and those of you here in Germany, be safe!

At the coast Is quit stormy now. The storm and rain is coming inland now. We were warned by all the news site to stay inside if you dont need to go on the road, events were cancelled.

Until now there are not real big problems. The heaviest part of the storm will come here within approx. an hour.

 

[Erba]

I think we're all in for a storm here, the winds have really picked up here now too. Yikes, stay safe!

 

[abpatchy]

Good morning everyone!
How are things with you guys? Here the storm is basically over. It's still a little windy...it's raining. But all in all it wasn't bad. At least here. Hope all is well with you and your chickens.

My hubby fixed the windows at the coop. A little WD40 and a metal brush to get the gunk off the lock. Before they were being held shut (or open in the summer) by 2x4s ... not a good thing in a storm. So I am pretty sure all is good at the coop. I was thinking i have to leave them inside... but the way things look here I might open the doors for them.

On the brighter side... hatch day is less than a week away! Thursday is lock down.
At this point I have 9 sulmtaler for me from a different breeder, 4 bieleelder, 18 white sulmtaler that I am hatching for a different breeder and sorry to say I am down to 14 sulmtaler from my flock for the other breeder. So 45 eggs left of the 77 that went in. yeah ok... the bielefelder were out of luck from the get go... but I am a little disappointed from my birds. 14 out of 32.... My guess at this point is the cold on some of the days... as well as it was still early in the year when I collected.
I'll keep you posted.

 

[abpatchy]

Update:
I got to the coop and could not open the front gate. I could keep locking it but not unlocking. So I called my hubby and the Vorstand of the breeding club. They both came. While I was waiting on them another guy from the club came by and he was able to jump over the gate and open from the inside. The storm must have busted the cylinder of the gate.
The coop is fine... no issues there. Hope everything is well on your end!

 

[Erba]

Happily no damage here, although some of the yellow garbage bags destined for pickup today, that we have to take to the main road, have spread their contents all over my neighbours property. And our garbage was not even collected, probably because of the storm, they are busy cleaning up elsewhere.

It's sunny here now but still a bit blustery. I let the chickens out in the pen this morning, they were like "what storm?" I seriously think they slept better than me last night in their coop. Now they are in the garden enjoying the sun.

Hope all your families and chooks are ok.

 

[crissy1079]

I'm in the same boat. Wanted 4 BO hens and ended up with 4 roo's. Have you thought about posting an advert to try and give them away cause I'm afraid their is no "nice" way. As you said, you can only do it quickly and humanely as possible. Most posts I've read go for putting them in a cone and then cutting the arteries along the side of the neck. I've read they become calmer when upside down and pass rather quickly

Also I forgot to mention I’m not able to give any of mine away. I’m pretty sure my flock has some strain of mareks and respiratory illness. I’ve had some chickens get sick and some die. After lots of research and advise here on backyard chickens. I can only guess but pretty sure they have something and if I gave any away there’s a chance they spread what ever they have to another flock. So I’m stuck with the ones I have. So I’m hoping they can get along and it won’t come to culling.

 

[crissy1079]

Happily no damage here, although some of the yellow garbage bags destined for pickup today, that we have to take to the main road, have spread their contents all over my neighbours property. And our garbage was not even collected, probably because of the storm, they are busy cleaning up elsewhere.

It's sunny here now but still a bit blustery. I let the chickens out in the pen this morning, they were like "what storm?" I seriously think they slept better than me last night in their coop. Now they are in the garden enjoying the sun.

Hope all your families and chooks are ok.

I didn’t even hear about these storms. We didn’t have anything in lower Austria. Hope you all are safe.

 

[Papa John59]

I didn’t even hear about these storms. We didn’t have anything in lower Austria. Hope you all are safe.

Well are we the lucky one! And you heard nothing? We got hit rather well. More in my next post.

 

[Papa John59]

WOW! What a night is all I can say! I was awoken at a bit past 03:00 to a whistling window! I have never heard our bedroom window whistle....and so loud! The only one is the entire house! And that was with the roller down! So, I slowly raised the roller to look at what I could see. Lots of rain and trash blowing all over the streets and then I looked down on the coop and run....so far so good! So I dropped the roller, checked the kids and went back to bed. Only to be woken up again by the next wave of the storm....this time it was kicking up a mess! The plastic foil on one side of the coop was ripped open and rain was pelting the run itself. What was once a dry place, looked to be under water! So I bundled myself up and by this time my son was getting up for work. We resecured the foil, checked to hens (they were fine) and went inside. School had been cancelled Sunday evening, so the girls slept in. At 09:00 again the rains started and again, I had to go outside and re-secure the foil, this time with the help of my oldest daughter. And at this time, we let them out of the coop. They did not complain at all that is was so late. The hens came out...drank some fresh water, ate breakfast and marched their happy selves back into the coop. At 16:00, my son came home from work and reported that the foil was again flapping in the wind. This time we tore it all down and put up new foil, but this time we wrapped it all the way around the corner to the run's door. No way for the wind to blow in between the foil sheets this time. But then.....I saw it! The run was leaning at about 11°.....we had to brace it up and now we are praying for a calm night! So far, so good! So my dream of a new run/coop will in fact happen sooner than I planned. Just waiting for the weather to get warm! Which will not be happening soon...they are calling for snow the next three days!

 

[BDutch]

Obvious my chickens don't like the storm. Only a few of my chickens wanted to free range this morning. After 15 minutes they went inside again for shelter.

‘Held my heart’ too because I have (partly) a loose roof on the coop which broke a few years ago in another storm. But with a few extra heavy bricks nothing happened now.

I keep it that way because its handy to clean out the coop thoroughly or to replace the batteries in the chicken guard.