Tropical Storm Ian Prep

[ladyhand]

Tropical storm warning here in central North Carolina. I know that summer thunderstorms can be be as severe, but with warning, do you bring chickens in because of the risk of something falling on the coop or run? Our coop (pictured below) is surrounded by trees and built by me and my husband (and we aren’t carpenters). He thinks I’m crazy, but I’d love the opinion of experienced chicken lovers.

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

Tropical storm warning here in central North Carolina. I know that summer thunderstorms can be be as severe, but with warning, do you bring chickens in because of the risk of something falling on the coop or run? Our coop (pictured below) is surrounded by trees and built by me and my husband (and we aren’t carpenters). He thinks I’m crazy, but I’d love the opinion of experienced chicken lovers.

I would have a back up plan for sure! I would bring mine in the house and section off an area for them if a big storm were to come. Good luck to you!!

 

[SourRoses]

We just had Ian go past as a tropical storm (central FL) this morning.
We brought most of the birds inside, but we didn't get any damage.
Like you, we have a lot of trees overhead (the house too), but they are live oaks which are pretty tough against storms due to the balance of their root mass matching the canopy.
What are your trees like? How have they handled storm winds in the past?
Our trees drop some pretty hefty limbs, but for the most part they do it when they're ready, not when a storm makes them.
I was most concerned about flooding, as some projections called for more than a foot of rain, but thankfully we didn't get that amount. How far inland are you?
To prepare for power outages on a well, we filled lots of 5g jugs of water, bathtubs, etc. but thankfully we still have power.

 

[3KillerBs]

This is what I did: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/prepping-coop-and-run-for-wind.1550228/

Chickens don't come indoors here. If I hadn't wanted to take the electric net down in order to protect it from being damaged by blown debris and if I had an auto door I'd have even let them decide if they did or didn't want to go out in the rain.

The main flock is as safe in their coop as they could be anywhere. The 3 cull cockerels in Camp Cockerel *could* be in danger of having their coop flipped off of them (no floor), if the stakes pull out of the ground but if that happens I can be pretty sure that they'll go hide under the huge roof overhang of the main coop since they try to go over there where the hens are any time they get out by accident anyway.