Studabird
Songster
Chickens and Natural Disasters
By Jennifer and Jason Studabaker
By Jennifer and Jason Studabaker
Context:
We recently went through a natural disaster. Hurricane Laura a category 4 hurricane with gusts up to 183 mph when it hit my household. I have 23 Chickens of mixed breeds and 17 turkeys all bronze breasted. After the storm I was asked to foster a duckling (who is not happy to be alone but was the only survivor of the storm). I did not evacuate specifically because of my flock. I stayed because I was afraid that I would not be able to get back to them in time to keep them fed and watered. Thankfully I stayed because during in the eye of the storm I had to go rescue my 9 Buff Brahma’s who had the roof ripped off there coop. They enjoyed the rest of the storm in my master bath room drying off and pooping.
I have learned a lot about chicken and turkey husbandry since the storm ended. I’ll try to articulate what I did right and what I did wrong so no one has to make those decisions without knowing what is going on and what might happen. By the way, the storm is the easy part. It’s the aftermath of the storm that is the real challenge. To date I have been without power for two and half weeks and am writing this on generator power.
Preparation:
The first thing you have to ask yourself is: What type of natural disaster am I likely to face. Hurricane, Tornado, Earthquake, Wildfire? While this article is going to focus on my experience with a hurricane, I think the advice is good for all the above mentioned disasters except maybe wildfire because that is really a grab everything and go type deal.
Questions you need to ask yourself are:
- Do I have enough feed?
- Will I have water after the event to give my flock
- Is heat or cold going to be an issue
- Are my coops ready for a disaster
- Do I have enough feed?
- If there is a natural disaster you need to realize your feed store is going to be affected as well.
- If that is the case, then what are you going to do until the feed store is back open? If there is a storm season(as there is with Tornado and Hurricanes) then you should have a surplus ready to keep you and your birds with feed until such a time as the feed store is able to open again.
- Will I have water after the event for my flock?
- There were massive water outages after Hurricane Laura. Thankfully, I didn’t lose water and was able to keep my flock watered. This was not the case for the home I had just moved out of. If I had still been there and had my flock I would have needed water for them as well. The National Guard and FEMA were there within a couple days and were able to provide water. Please keep in mind that involved long lines and they were not trying to hear I need an additional 32 pack of 16 oz. waters for my birds (The first time I went to get MREs, tarps, water and ice, the wait time from the time I entered the line until I exited was over 3 hours) . Tornados are different from hurricanes they are very narrow disasters and if that is what you are facing and you are trying to get water then you will likely be able to get water without too much effort by going to a town or two over. If it is a hurricane or something similar where there is widespread outages of supplies then you may want to stockpile water.
- Is heat or cold going to be an issue?
- The week after the hurricane we had heat advisories for a week with the heat index in the 115 degree range. Like I said before I have Buff Brahmas they do not like the heat and I could not keep them with ice blocks and ventilation like I had been doing earlier this summer. The truth is that it appears that if they have enough water even if it is hot they will pull through. They will be hot and panting and complaining but they will survive. Frankly, I don’t care if my egg production slips a little if my chickens are alive.
- Are my coops ready for a disaster?
- The first thing I thought about was my runs. I knew this was going to be a wind event so I took all the tarps off of the runs so they did not turn into sails. This may have saved all my runs because none of them moved. I have one coop that is very solidly built and was purchased at moderate expense. It did not move and I would have been better off in the coop than in my home. I have three other coops one for the Brahmas that are going to be bred to SOP. There are nine of them and they are in a smaller coop bought from a big box store and modified to meet my requirements for the number of birds. This coop had the roof ripped off of it. My wife and I had to go out in the eye of the storm and rescue the birds. The second big box coop fared better it was moved by the wind (when I say moved, it literally flipped over. Chickens survived thankfully) but kept its integrity as did the third coop.
- If I could change one thing I would have moved all my big box store coops next to the actual home and screwed. (That is right screwed) the doors and roofs closed even more than they were. So there is no way the roof was coming off. I hypothesis that if I had moved the smaller coops closer to the house and screwed everything closed and used tent stakes and rope then the coops would have fared better. This however is only a guess.
- I also had 17 turkeys that were very young and under the heat lamp on our back porch. Just before the storm hit, we moved them inside. I didn’t want to do this until the last possible second because I was afraid what a house without any ventilation would smell like after 12 hours or so of turkey.
We lost power a 2 pm. The afternoon of the storm and it was not even windy yet. The storm did not hit until 10 pm and was not in full force until a little after midnight. There is not much you can do during the storm other than pray to whatever God you believe in and hope that your preparations were sufficient. If there is a hurricane then you may have a period of quiet during the eye. When the eye was over us we went to on the flock. The big coop, a North Country Storage Barns chicken coop, did not move it did not leak it was in good of condition after the storm as it was in before the storm. I would highly recommend them if you are not trying to get on the featured coop of the week with BYC. The Brahma coop had the roof ripped off as I mentioned before and all the birds were huddled together wet and terrified. My wife who is brilliant in general but even more when there are animals in danger told my daughter to get the laundry basket and a bed sheet. When our daughter returned we quickly put the birds in the laundry basket and brought them inside.
The aftermath
So you made it through the storm. Good job!! The next part is the hardest. What is your situation? Do you have power? Do you have water? Do you have coop and runs that are intact?
My situation was this. I had coops that were intact or salvageable. Except for my turkeys. They were still brooder bound and had spent the night in our living room. There was one coop that had tipped over and the cockerel Jewel had escaped. I had no idea where he was or if he was alive. He had tried to kill one of my pullets a week or two earlier so I was not too, too worried about his continued existence. Thankfully he was alive and found walking around our field just trying to make sense of life. He was always a good bird and friendly but he was most happy to be caught and put in our other bathroom until his coop and run could be repaired.
I put the roof back on the Brahmas coop, previously, they had been referred to as the “Baby Brahmas” because they were younger than the original flock. It was then asserted by my daughter Portia (A.K.A Baby Brahma Mama) that any chicken that can survive a Cat 4 hurricane without a roof should no longer be called. “Baby Brahma” they will to heretofore be known as the Bad@$$ Brahmas.
The Rhode Island Reds and Goldie an ISA Sexlink had their coop tilted back on its base and then they were happy and pecking around the run like nothing ever happened.
The “Legacies” the original flock just wanted out of the tank of a coop so they could see what a hurricane did.
Here is the important part. I did not have power to run the fans that had been keeping them cool during a brutal Louisiana summer. I did not have the capability to make ice for them like I did before and the forecast while dry was HOT. Like a heat index of 115 degrees hot. I had already lost two birds earlier this summer to heat and I was worried. The only thought I had was keep the water rolling. So I kept changing the water. It was not cold but it was cool. Then after a day or two the National Guard showed up in town. They offered ice. Ice! So rather than enjoy a nice cool drink on a very hot day I would take as much ice as they would give me and give it to my chickens. Now I know there may be people who want to tell me I am wrong for taking ice that I personally did not use. Let me assure you if I did not have chickens then that ice would have been used for my family. Trust me.
Here is the last point. I have been without power for two weeks! This means there are other things I am starting to worry about. Yesterday, I had a pack of four dogs that were starving very interested in my birds. So there is predator protection and then there is starving predator protection. A starving predator is much more likely to dig a little deeper when their prey is staring at them and kind of taunting them. Then after two weeks without power I also have to be aware of looters. There are signs everywhere saying “You loot, We shoot”
The End???
My question is this I have 40 Birds mostly chickens and some turkeys. The turkeys were inside the home for the storm but where do I put them now? Well I made an impromptu turkey coop and run out of storm debris (The only good thing about a natural disaster) but it will not hold up. Coop supplies are in short supply because… ohhhh… that is right the coop materials are now being used for home repairs, and ALL the homes in my area need repairs. So I am trying to figure out how to make a coop and run big enough for 18 turkeys or do I let them free range? There are disadvantages to free ranging them even now. There are feral pigs as well as bobcats in the area. Lately, I’ve seen packs of dogs roaming my country road. Please remember that when people evacuate, it isn’t always feasible to take an animal with you. The animals left behind will become hungry and desperate. And they will try to pick off easy targets. I have yet to have power restored so this article is written a prematurely (this is 2 and a half weeks after the storm. My wife checks the outage map every day and judging by the progress, it will be a few more weeks without power. I knew though that once the time was right to write the article most of the information would have either flown out of my head or I would be too busy to write it.
After the storm hit I realized several things.
- I had not prepared enough. I should have done a lot more. Anchored my coops to the ground.
- You never know what is going to happen. I have driven by homes that were totally destroyed and then next door a home that is fine. So staying for your flock while it may save their lives it could also cost you yours.
- Chickens are resilient; they will take this much better than you will. Probably because they don’t have to call the insurance adjuster after the disaster.
- Finally, prepare, prepare, prepare, you cannot be too prepared for a natural disaster. I have a whole list of things both chicken related and not chicken related for the next time a storm comes. For instance, I had plenty of cat food but forgot what happens to cat food once it is digested and did not have enough cat litter. Litter was not available ANYWHERE and my father-in-law came in from Austin where he had evacuated with plenty of cat litter.
- Have family and friends out of town who will be willing to travel to you with all the provisions you forgot. My parents came down from Indiana. (1,110 miles) with all the things we needed (extra chicken feed and dog food). By the time they came down, we had been without power for a week so I also asked for a pack of steaks. You will get sick of MREs after a bit. This isn’t a burn to the National Guard; I will be forever grateful to them. They LITERALLY put a roof over our heads(by giving us tarps to cover our wind damaged roof), gave us water and ice when the days were hot, and a meal when we couldn’t find gas and were conserving gasoline. Relief organizations are now on the ground and I will say this, my wife has done a tremendous job of going out to get us one hot meal a day just so we can eat some hot food and remember what good food tastes like. While we waited, a nice steak helps to you to remember this is only temporary. Family and friends will want to help. Let them.
- Whatever you need, you will have to wait in line for. The first time I went to get gas I drove 63 miles and still had to wait in line for gas. The lines will be long and the cell service will suck. Bring a book and your patience.
- It will work it out in the end. You have chickens so I know you know what set backs are. Just put one foot in front of the other and you will survive.
Disaster Prep List
- Food. Have a three week supply. Know if your flock is going to transition. i.e. my first egg came two days after the hurricane, and I still don’t have layer feed.
- Water. Know how much water the flock is going through and have a week’s worth on hand.
- Generator. Buy a tiny generator to run whatever the flock needs to keep cool or warm.
- Fuel. Have enough fuel to last three to four days (There will be long lines to get fuel. Period.)
- Patience. After whatever happens nothing is going to go as fast as you want it to enjoy your chicken TV as it is likely the only TV you will have.
