What is your plan when tornado is happening???

[Toi-toi]

I thought when I get "tornado warning" I still have time to think about my chickens.
But after last week's tornado happened in MA and reading and watching news, I guess I really don't have time to think besides saving my "people" family.
Hoping that my first experience will be my last one and speed recovery for who effected by tornadoes!!

 

[BarefootMom]

Do your chickens normally free range? How in the world would you put them in the coop pray tell!

There is no way I could catch all of my chickens and put them in the coop. So if the warning is in the day time, they have to fend for themselves, night time they are in the coop.


We only get a few minutes of warnings and it is hard to hear. Most of the time they will run the fire trucks up and down the roads to let us know. Only a few months ago a siren was installed in the center of "town"

I would most likely be scurrying my family into the car to drive to the church. We live in a house with no inside walls-that would be safe.

 

[Chickenaddict]

A few weeks ago one, make that 2 hit here, one tore apart north minneapolis the other touched down on the south side of the lake we live across the street from. I locked the birds in the coop and sat out on the patio watching the wall clouds above the house rotate.... Everytime we get severe weather it skips right over us, not to say it will never hit us but so far we have been very fortunate. If time allowed i'd be picking up all 44 birds and shoving them into our crawl space in the house.

 

[scooter147]

Quote:
That might make a good reality tv show. Grabbing, snatching, stuffing and containing 44 chickens into a crawl space.

 

[mdbokc]

Having been through two tornadoes (could not sleep whenever it rained for 2 years after the first one), I am safely going to say that your coops will not survive. A coop standing up to a 90mph wind gust is not the same as the action of a tornado. When a tornado really does hit, the human family is first, pets are next in line.

 

[Toi-toi]

Quote:
Yes, my chickens are free range. But they are pretty easy to catch. When I call them, they will come see me.
And my family and neighbor call me "crazy chicken lady" because I talk to them, hug them and pray for them everyday

 

[Chickenaddict]

Quote:
That might make a good reality tv show. Grabbing, snatching, stuffing and containing 44 chickens into a crawl space.

LOL! You should see the size of the crawl space, its quite large

All I need to get the birds to follow directions is a slice of bread. If I stand by the door and wave it they would all shuffle right in

 

[scooter147]

Quote:
I hear you although it's only been a little over a month for me. I use to be the porch sitter that watched storms. Now when they have thunderstorm warnings and they saturate the local news with weather bulletin interuptions on tv I changed the channel to a cable station. I get this knot in my stomach it still rattles my nerves too much to watch. For the time being I'll live by the motto of lightning doesn't strick twice.

 

[Life is Good!]

Once you've gone through one seriously bad storm - for some reason, your 'weather instincts' go WAY up. I can now 'feel' a bad storm in the back of my neck and pit of my stomach. The initial incident was 2 years ago. The memory does not leave you - ever. And it'll be sunny and nothing in the sky. But I've learned that my insticts are ALWAYS right. Gives me about 20 extra minutes to batten all the hatches and get everyone where it's safe. Husband, kids, indoor critters (kids take their own) all in the basement.

It's funny, the hens know bad weather is coming too. We use a portable tractor for daytime foraging (it's completed fenced and roofed) so to get to their coop, a person has to come open the door. They RUN to their coop and clamber up the three stairs waiting for me to open their door! Only had to do this twice this year so far....hoping not too many more times. You should hear the horses next door - whinnying and crying and anxious. Those are my signals - my gut instinct, the next door neighbor's horses and hens response. Animals always know ahead of people. Our dog alerts us something's coming also! He doesn't like thunderstorms....and he'll come tell us something's up. You just have to listen. If the wild birds are quiet - that's a REAL bad sign!

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Quote:
You're lucky if you get a warning. Many times they just drop out of the sky with no warning whatsoever. We had one below us 2 weeks ago. I live on the flat top of a short mountain in NC. On the opposite peak as the Greenville/Spartanburg (even though it's in Spence Mnt. NC) NOA weather tower. We had one a couple years back that hit one side of the mountain and then the other but skipped over the top! My one coop blew over, but the tractors were still standing. That's the way they are. The girls in the coop were banged up but in the tractors, they were snoozing. Go figure!

I'm not like a lot of folks here. My chickens are just chickens. I don't want anything to happen to them, but I'm not going to loose sleep over it if it does. Your responcibility is to keep yourself and other members of your family safe. I ran around the house grabbing cats and tossed them into the water heater closet. (they were NOT happy with me) The dogs and I sat in the tub listening to the tv storm cast as I waited for my husband to come home from work. (he was on the road when it started) I was online with friends the entire time.

We made out fine, but the house I used to live in down at the bottom of the mountain got thump with a tree and my 80 year old neighbors lost their roof. Lots of wind damage but nobody was hurt.

If you have a storm like this coming your way, get your hiney to the lowest part of your house!!! Your chickens will take care of themselves!