If you and your backyard flock have found yourselves in the path of a hurricane, let me help you navigate this living nightmare. Stores are going to sell out fast but you only need a few supplies to help safeguard your hens. Here is an actionable to-do list of how to quickly prepare your chicken coop and flock to weather the incoming hurricane:
Prepare your chicken coop and Flock for an incoming hurricane
There is no time to waste. Here is what you need to do, in order:
1. Prepare for your family first. Injured, distressed, displaced owners are the most harmful thing your hens could experience in the long-run. Download our Family Hurricane Checklist here:
2. Secure clean water for your flock. This can be bottled water or buckets full of clean water that is set aside in case you lose water to your home or electricity to your well.
3. Get Chicken Feed from the Feed Store. Go now. It will sell out shortly after the news confirms your area is in the storm’s path. Also buy a bale of hay or straw and a bag of Sweet PDZ.
4. Batten down the coop. Make the hens as comfortable as possible for a long lock-in. We will go over multiple suggestions below.
Do Not Rely on Amazon
WARNING: Amazon will stop delivering DAYS before the hurricane makes landfall. Your online orders will not arrive. You must act quickly to buy the items you need locally. As soon as the news announces you’re in the zone of landfall, Amazon will cease delivering packages and begin to evacuate their vehicles from the area. Packages still en-route are delayed 10-14 days and won’t be delivered until long after the storm.
Prepare the Outside of the Chicken Coop for a Hurricane:
Hurricanes pack a minimum of 74 mph winds (Category 1) and up to 157 mph winds (Category 5). If your coop is lightweight or moveable, move it into a garage, shed, or any covered area where it will have some protection from the wind. If your coop is large and cemented in place, here is how to add further protection:
For Category 2+ Hurricanes:
1. Purchase corrugated plastic boards and zip ties. You can find the plastic boards at Hobby Lobby, Michael’s, and Lowe’s, sold as project boards or yard signs. You can also use old political or decorative yard signs for this purpose. Cut them to fit your windows. Punch a hole in each corner and use a zip tie to fasten it onto any hardware cloth covered windows. This thin material will actually help stop flying dirt, sand and pebbles from harming your chicken’s eyes inside the coop so cover the windows as much as you can.
No Plastic Boards? Use plastic feed bags that you cut to fit the same way! It will help stop flying dust and dirt.
2. Secure the coop roof. If there are any leaky or loose spots, nail, screw, and/or caulk them now before high winds cause more expensive damage.
3. Prepare for heavy rains. Remove debris, trash and put away buckets, hoses, and small bowls that are around the chicken run or yard. All of these will be flung into the coop siding or carried away by the winds. Do any necessary flood mitigation tasks, such as clearing gutters, drains, or adding mulch. Do anything you can think of to help keep the hens high and dry.
Prepare the Inside of the Chicken Coop for a Hurricane:
Your hens are going to need to be locked inside the coop during the storm for their own safety. If she’s in the run, high winds (up to157 mph) can throw her lightweight body against the fencing and kill her. Falling branches can do the same if she doesn’t have the protection of a sturdy coop.
1. Provide the hens with a deep layer of straw, hay, or bedding inside the coop. This will give them some comfort and something to scratch and peck through, looking for treats.
2. Seed the bedding with some scratch grains. Again, this helps keep the hens busy.
3. Place a feeder inside of the coop and fill it full. Your hens will need to rely on this feeder for at least 24 hours through the storm’s landfall.
4. Provide the hens with water inside the coop. Place a hanging waterer, chick waterer or any type of mounted waterer inside the coop. Staple gun a scrap piece of 1/2 inch hardware cloth between studs inside the coop if you need a place to hang side-mount waterers. Again, your flock will need something to drink while locked inside so make the waterers difficult to knock over if a panic ensues during the storm.
Do You Need Litter or Odor Control?
If you want fresh litter, pine shavings, straw, mulch or Sweet PDZ odor control granules for your coop, you’ll need to grab them quickly. If the feed store is out of pine shavings and straw, opt for bags of un-dyed mulch from any home improvement store. My local Lowe’s happens to sell cypress mulch in bags. Mulch is ideal if you need flood control help in the coop or run.
Have Chicken First Aid Supplies
Flying dirt and debris can irritate your hen’s eyes. Nano silver in a travel pump spray bottle is what I use for all eye-related issues. Here are the supplies I keep on-hand for tending to my flock’s minor emergencies:
Grandma’s brand molasses (available at grocery stores on the pancake syrup aisle)
Elderberry syrup (original formula is chicken safe, no night time formulas)
Vetericyn Poultry Spray (for all wounds and flesh injuries)
Blue Kote spray (stops hens from pecking at red, bloody wounds)
Nano Silver in a travel pump spray bottle (very chicken safe, especially for eye wounds)
Bacitracin ointment (safe for use on chickens)
2×2 inch Gauze squares
SafeGuard liquid wormer (directions for chicken use are in this article on cleaner laid eggs)
Epsom salt (to soak an egg bound hen)
VetRx Poultry Remedy (150 year old remedy that uses Balsam, Oregano, and Rosemary essential oils)
Unrefined Organic Coconut Oil (for wounds and scaly leg mites)
Prepare for Eggs to Sell Out at the Grocery Store
Hurricanes create egg, bread, butter, and milk shortages almost instantly. You are going to be inundated with texts from friends and neighbors requesting eggs. It is a good idea to always have new, clean cartons on hand. Remember, Federal Safe Handling Instructions must appear on the outside of every carton of eggs sold in the United States. My website shop has stamps that can help keep you legally compliant. Blank cartons for stamping in bulk can be found here, here, and here or purchased in smaller quantities on Amazon. (Amazon afflinks)
Free Egg Wait List Printable PDF!
You will probably need to keep a paper wait list so you can keep track of who gets eggs next. Being organized and setting realistic expectations of when friends, family and neighbors can expect to get eggs from you will help. Since most recipes call for 2 or 3 eggs, selling by the half dozen can help you get eggs into more people’s hands sooner.
>>> Download our Egg Wait List Printable Here! <<<
What Else Do I Need?
Hurricane clean up is messy. You are going to want mud boots, work gloves, a shovel (to move mud and help divert flood water) plus thick black contractor grade trash bags. There will be downed trees and branches flung everywhere so if you’re not comfortable with a chain saw, long-handled branch loppers are a wonderful tool to help trim deadfall down to size. I love my galvanized Behrens buckets for hauling feed and fresh water to the coop. If you’re concerned about keeping feed dry, Vittles Vault brand storage containers are wonderful and withstand years of abuse!
How Our Flock Survived Hurricane Beryl in 2024
Hurricane Beryl made landfall on the Texas coast Monday July 8, 2024. Where I live (near Houston) was on the “dirty” side of the storm. This means the counter clockwise rotating rain bands from the hurricane come in full force from the ocean, tearing at the land with the highest power winds. Torrents of sideways driving rain would have battered and killed any bird left in the run.
Hurricane Beryl (2024) Strikes the Coop
Our chicken coop and property took a beating. Even though we had trimmed trees the month before and again the Saturday before landfall, broken branches still struck our coop. Flying dirt, leaves, sticks, tree bark, and pebbles in 60 mph winds bothered my chicken’s eyes and panicked my hens. Our flock was locked inside our large coop with plenty of fresh straw in which to hunker down. A large hanging feeder was full of crumbles and homemade scratch treats. Most of the older girls opted to ride out the storm hiding in the nest boxes, away from the crackling lightning.
Hurricane Egg Experience
Two days before landfall, when local news stations began broadcasting storm warnings, my phone began chirping with texts from neighbors wanting to buy eggs. I quickly sold out and had to begin a wait list. Every egg the hens laid until the rain began were sold. (Grocery stores were a madhouse. It was wise to plan ahead as much as you could.)
After The Storm
Hurricanes knock out power and it stays out for days. Gas stations run out of gas quickly as people power generators and refill vehicles after the storm. Our local Tractor Supply and closest feed store did not have power restored until 4 days after the storm. This is why it is important to have feed on-hand going into the storm. Stores must remain closed until power is restored and any storm damage is repaired.
Prepare Your Chicken Coop for a Hurricane Before One Strikes
I hope these tips have been useful to get your flock ready for an incoming storm. If you’re wise, you’ll buy some of these things in advance, when all is calm, so you’re prepared the moment you hear a hurricane is headed your way. Every single thing I had done in advance, like having bottled water and new egg cartons, proved to be useful!
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Hi, I am leaving my chickens out in Hurricane Helene. We’re outside of Tampa and expect up to 67 mph gusts / 30 mph winds. I have a shade cloth wrapped and secured around the south and west side of the open covered run. (That worked well in Hurricane Idalia and kept the rain out.) We have extra places to roost. Extra food and water. But I was curious bc you mention covering the windows. Should I just close their windows? (They do have hardware cloth over them.) I would close them starting tomorrow morning until Friday, when storm is expected to be over for us. So basically, they would sleep one night in the coop with closed windows. Thanks.
Hi Ruth!
I’m so sorry you’re in the path of this storm but it sounds like you’ve already done a GREAT job of preparing ahead of the hurricane! I would opt to just close the windows if you’re expecting winds/gusts below 75 mph. Especially if the flock can get down into the bottom of the coop, below the level of the windows, to keep blown dirt and grit out of their eyes. If the coop windows are nearly floor to ceiling (which is common in the HOT south!) then covering them is a good idea. It sounds like you have the ability to close the windows for the worst of it, which will only be around 67 mph, so I would do that and not worry about boards or any type of additional plastic window coverings. My flock sustained 60 mph winds and some gusts nearing 70 mph during Hurricane Beryl with no window coverings at all. They mostly hid in the nest boxes or huddled together low in the corners of the coop. (When I would peek outside, none of them were on the roost near the windows.) But if we were expecting 85 mph gusts, I would have boarded up the windows somehow, at least on the south & west storm side.
Best of luck through Hurricane Helene to you and your sweet flock!