Wildfire evacuation

[SweetTea&Chicks]

Stay safe! Don't risk your life for your chickens. Which sound

here's a picture from Hurricane Irma when someone had to evacuate themselves and their chickens. Your plan sounds great also.

 

[MissChick@dee]

Your in our thoughts and prayers

 

[Abriana]

A dog crate covered with a blanket works great. Pack up a spare feeder and waterer and a bag of food as well. Put the mama and babies in crate that’s big right now so all you’d have to do is grab the other hens, and cover with a blanket. Since it will be dark, no need to worry about chicks being pecked.
Or the post above, a great way to keep them calm, although they might fall off the seat or roll around

 

[Zinjifrah]

Too late to do it now - but in the future, hit up garage sales. I recently picked up two large dog crates for $5 and $6 respectively. They've got wear and tear, but they're still more than secure enough for me to load them up with chickens. My chickens are new to me, so they had to be integrated into the evac plan!

 

[lcwmt]

We're just a few miles from the Carr Fire here in Redding, California.

Have you ever had to evacuate with chickens before? I started a preparation discussion months ago, but dumb me. I'm good at talking things up, not so good at actual preparation.

I have things I need to go and do. Please post any ideas or your own experiences here. Spot fires from embers are starting to ignite. If we have to evacuate, we're unsure of how that works, where we'll need to go, how to manage this with almost no spare funds.

I'll call the local Red Cross and sheriff's office, the animal shelter and see if my calls will be answered. Now is not the time to be figuring this out.

*****
Best of luck to you and yours. With a little grace and assertiveness, there will be helpful people on your path. Do not hesitate to ask for what you need. If someone says, "sorry", ask them where they would send you! All will be well.

Here are two true stories _ not the same as what you are dealing with at all, however.
In December 2017, a neighbor, 2 miles South of our place, was awakened by his Aussie, Jake, at about 2:30 a.m..
The house was full of smoke. Our friend and his partner and Jake got out, along with the 4 house cats. The barn cats??? nobody knew.
The fire started in the chicken coop which was attached to the garage and had a heat lamp (cause of fire: heat lamp got knocked into the straw).

The house was a total loss in a matter of hours. Overnight temps were below -30. very very cold. The fire truck hoses froze before they could put the fire out!
End result: people and pets got out, house was eventually rebuilt. Jake gets steaks for life <G>
It was assumed that all four laying hens were roasted. However!!! The firemen found an ice block with a chicken inside, took it to the folks *we* were buying eggs from at the time. They thawed it out and integrated it into their flock. It survived and was their only brown egg layer.

Another fire story: old and dear friends in a different county had to evacuate due to range/mountain fire (similar to your circumstances). They could not get the cats. The entire area around their property burned but the cats survived and came home once their peeps were back. Later in life the cats had some health issues due to smoke inhalation, but they made it.

Critters are amazingly resilient. Turn the ones you can't take loose, leave food and water if you can but trust that they - and you- will be okay.

We have had occasion to think about fire evacuation as well. Dogs will be gathered up, the cat if possible, Jeff's computer if possible (his work is data based and remote), perhaps cameras, perhaps a telescope or two. It's all just stuff... the chickens probably get turned out (depending on time), and life will move on.

Wishing you all the best!

 

[arrowti]

I'd highly recommend, if you can, to get a small animal trailer (look up small pig trailers) if it's affordable. Have it empty but ready for emergencies. You could separate chicks from hens with such a trailer and just attach it to your vehicle and go. I guess the main problem would be trying to catch all the birds if the evacuation is during the day when they're outside.

Hopefully everything works out, and that the fire gets contained before it reaches you.

EDIT: We managed to nab one for real cheap from someone who used to haul horses. Prior to that we would borrow one from a friend.

 

[Sunshine Flock]

*****
Best of luck to you and yours. With a little grace and assertiveness, there will be helpful people on your path. Do not hesitate to ask for what you need. If someone says, "sorry", ask them where they would send you! All will be well.

Here are two true stories _ not the same as what you are dealing with at all, however.
In December 2017, a neighbor, 2 miles South of our place, was awakened by his Aussie, Jake, at about 2:30 a.m..
The house was full of smoke. Our friend and his partner and Jake got out, along with the 4 house cats. The barn cats??? nobody knew.
The fire started in the chicken coop which was attached to the garage and had a heat lamp (cause of fire: heat lamp got knocked into the straw).

The house was a total loss in a matter of hours. Overnight temps were below -30. very very cold. The fire truck hoses froze before they could put the fire out!
End result: people and pets got out, house was eventually rebuilt. Jake gets steaks for life <G>
It was assumed that all four laying hens were roasted. However!!! The firemen found an ice block with a chicken inside, took it to the folks *we* were buying eggs from at the time. They thawed it out and integrated it into their flock. It survived and was their only brown egg layer.

Another fire story: old and dear friends in a different county had to evacuate due to range/mountain fire (similar to your circumstances). They could not get the cats. The entire area around their property burned but the cats survived and came home once their peeps were back. Later in life the cats had some health issues due to smoke inhalation, but they made it.

Critters are amazingly resilient. Turn the ones you can't take loose, leave food and water if you can but trust that they - and you- will be okay.

We have had occasion to think about fire evacuation as well. Dogs will be gathered up, the cat if possible, Jeff's computer if possible (his work is data based and remote), perhaps cameras, perhaps a telescope or two. It's all just stuff... the chickens probably get turned out (depending on time), and life will move on.

Wishing you all the best!

I loved reading this!!

Here's my Twitter account where I'm writing about the fire a bit:

https://twitter.com/CBDeLauder

It helps interacting with people during a crisis like this. But what I'm now thinking about the most is the frozen ice block with a chicken inside!!!!!!! Oh, my goodness. Are you serious? Was it like an actual formation of ice, similar to an ice cube, and a chicken came back to life once thawed out? That's nuts and so cute and funny!!

Frogs in Alaska freeze solid during winter. A friend told me kids pass them around in class at school. Unbelievable!!!!

 

[Sunshine Flock]

I'd highly recommend, if you can, to get a small animal trailer (look up small pig trailers) if it's affordable. Have it empty but ready for emergencies. You could separate chicks from hens with such a trailer and just attach it to your vehicle and go. I guess the main problem would be trying to catch all the birds if the evacuation is during the day when they're outside.

Hopefully everything works out, and that the fire gets contained before it reaches you.

EDIT: We managed to nab one for real cheap from someone who used to haul horses. Prior to that we would borrow one from a friend.

We're definitely going to get a trailer. We've talked about it for years. As soon as we pay off the electrician for the whole-house rewired last year, we'll set aside the funds and get this done.

 

[lcwmt]

I loved reading this!!

Here's my Twitter account where I'm writing about the fire a bit:

https://twitter.com/CBDeLauder

It helps interacting with people during a crisis like this. But what I'm now thinking about the most is the frozen ice block with a chicken inside!!!!!!! Oh, my goodness. Are you serious? Was it like an actual formation of ice, similar to an ice cube, and a chicken came back to life once thawed out? That's nuts and so cute and funny!!

Frogs in Alaska freeze solid during winter. A friend told me kids pass them around in class at school. Unbelievable!!!!

Absolutely true!
Chicken frozen in ice as part of fire rescue.
It was the best part of the fire rescue effort.
ETA
One of the Fire Dept. clean up crew found the ice block with chicken and took it to the people he knew who had a lot of chickens. They put the ice block in a tub, set it by the pellet stove. Ice thawed, chicken warmed up, ate + drank, etc and was integrated easily into their huge flock.
She made it.
Months later we were picking up eggs there and were asked if we wanted the brown eggs and were told the story.
We told Dan (the neighbor). He was absolutely delighted.
They are in their rebuilt house now and swear they will never have birds again - or if they do, there will be NO heat lamps.

 

[oregonkat]

We are in the thick of the smoke here in S. Oregon too. It is terrible! Most of the people in town are wearing masks and moving a little like zombies. The continual threat of fire nowadays has been a huge burden. I have too many chickens to think about getting them all out but we have been doing a huge amount of fire abatement around our property so perhaps they would survive if the fire moved quickly enough. We are considered a 'fire wise' community, whether that means that our home would survive or not, who knows, but better to be on the side of having made those preparations.
I wish you and your family all the best of luck and hopefully those fire fighters will get a handle on it before you have to evacuate.