Hey, all! Yesterday was a doozy. My 6-yr old daughter and I were there by ourselves in the stupid singlewide. Not safe. It came out of nowhere. I had a very beautiful playhouse I was using as a garden shed. It had 10 50 lb bags of food in it plus all my tools and stuff. Completely tossed and in a million pieces. The 10 x 10 coop with my babies in it was thrown over the pasture and into the next pasture where it broke into a ton of pieces. Some of the babies actually survived. They were all over the pasture. I found a bunch dead. One was alive but was missing its wing. I'm still missing about 20 babies. The tractor with my seramas blew away and smashed. I found the rooster dead but managed to locate two of the four hens. And another showed up right before we left. I haven't been out there yet today so I hope the other one shows up. One of our other coops (6 x 8 playhouse) somehow ended up with the front door facing the sky and the roof facing where the front used to be. It must have gotten lifted up and flipped backwards. Most of my chickens survived. I did find my beautiful blue Marans hen dead in the coop. Not sure how that happened unless she was on a roost and hit the wall.
The worst thing is that this is the 3rd time in less than a year that we've been hit with this kind of wind. Our farm is 110-acres of cleared land and it sits up high. There must be something about the way it's positioned that causes wind shears like that. No one else around me has any damage. I could rebuild the coops but what's the point. If it can toss a 1000 lb coop like nothing, I hesitate to do it. We've been living out there this summer in the singlewide and loving it. I'm not doing that anymore. It's not safe. I've dodged a bullet three times now. There's no where to go in case of bad weather. I love my chickens and love living on a farm. I'm not sure now this is the place I want to build. Maybe I'll feel differently later.
On a positive note, my 6-yr old was such a trooper. Climbing fences, picking up chickens, running around and doing whatever she could. And the whole time she was shivering in fear. The storms just kept coming. She never once complained or cried. My son was at a friend's house which is probably good because he has the tender heart for the chickens. Our farm kitty was on the back deck when it hit and I couldn't find her anywhere. I hope she's there this morning when we get there. Every run is falling apart. We secured what we could and I'm just hoping no predator showed up and the chickens stayed where they know. Every coop is damaged. It's just a mess.
The remains of my garden shed.
This is the coop my lavender silkies were in. The front door ended facing up and there were still chickens inside. Somehow Cole climbed down in there and got them out. We righted the coop with the tractor but it's in the wrong place and stuck. Have to figure out what to do with that one.
This is where the 10 x 10 coop with my babies used to be. I still can't believe it just blew away. That thing was big and heavy!
Found part of the baby coop a pasture away, down a hill and in the pond. There's stuff everywhere.
This is what's left of the tractor my seramas were in. I think the hens were up in the top like always and the rooster was in the run. Saved their lives.... at least three of them.
