Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc on the area, but at least one brood of plucky chickens survived the wrath of the storm.

During the early morning hours of September 27, Evans residents Hannah and Ryan O’Hagan huddled with their two young children, Jane, 4, and August, 15 months, in their living room as Hurricane Helene raged outside.

They could watch the storm through three big windows that were protected from the elements by their covered porch.

In their backyard, five more family members of the feathered variety – Ruth, Naomi, Diana, Camilla and Marlo Thomas – were clustered together in their chicken coop. With no dire warnings for the area in the weather forecast, the O’Hagans hadn’t reinforced their chickens’ home beforehand.

“I didn’t realize how dangerous the storm was,” Hannah says. “I didn’t know to be concerned about my human babies. I wasn’t worried about the chickens.”

Thumbs Up
Once the storm subsided, Hannah walked onto their porch to survey the damage to their property.

“A lot of pine trees had come down,” she says. “The coop was smushed. We could hardly see it. We couldn’t get to it.”

Fearing the worst, Ryan gingerly made his way outside, crawling over uprooted trees and debris to reach the chicken coop.

“I told him to give us a thumbs up if all of the chickens were there,” says Hannah. “He jumped up on a tree to let us know they were OK.”

The family was overjoyed that the “bawk bawks,” as August calls them, were safe and sound.

“Jane was really worried about them,” Hannah says. “She started jumping up and down when her dad popped up with a big smile on his face.”

Once Ryan saw that all the chickens had survived, he was able to joke about the situation. “To make Jane laugh, I said, ‘I guess we won’t be taking them to Chick-fil-A,’” he says.

After the storm, the chickens waited about an hour before deciding it was safe to venture out.

“They started marching to the trees in a line like they were in a parade,” says Hannah.

New Home
The O’Hagans got their chickens in May and built the coop themselves from a prefabricated kit.

“We have about an acre of land, and I thought we should put all of that space to good use,” Hannah says. “We thought the chickens would help teach Jane some responsibility, and we send her out every morning to get the eggs.”

Ruth and Naomi, Barred Rock chickens, are now nine months old. They let their three seven-month-old sister chicks, Diana and Camilla, who are Plymouth Rocks, and Marlo Thomas, a Green Queen, sleep under their wings when they were babies.

Hannah and Ryan have yet to decide if they’re going to build another chicken coop. In the meantime, the chickens are living in a “luxury apartment,” or what’s left of the storage-shed-turned-makeshift-chicken-coop. The shed is much sturdier, Hannah says, and they might fashion a screen door for it.

After all, she adds, “The chickens didn’t make it through a hurricane to get attacked by a fox.”

Post-storm, however, the birds kept trying to sit on broken remnants of their coop.

“I’ve been trying to convince the chickens to move into their new home, but they’re refusing. They’re sleeping on a root that is closer to their old coop,” says Hannah.

They sometimes perch on a beam in the shed, and the O’Hagans got them new boxes where they can lay eggs.

“The chickens only sleep in the coop. They wander around our property all day,” Hannah says. “When it starts to get dark, they go in the coop.”

To recharge after the storm, the O’Hagans spent a couple of nights at an Airbnb in Lexington, South Carolina. Although their family was away, the chickens never got lonely. If neighbors didn’t come to see them, then they went to visit the neighbors.

“They always came back to our yard at the end of the day,” says Hannah.

Happy Together
Although Hannah worried that the chickens might not lay eggs after the stress of the storm, they found 15 eggs in a box one morning several days later.

The chickens’ personalities seem to be intact as well.

Ruth is still the “mother hen.”

“Ruth is definitely everyone’s favorite. She’s an angel. She’s the friendliest,” says Hannah. “The other chickens follow her around. She’s their leader.”

She also likes to keep the brood together.

“Ruth yells if she can’t find someone,” says Hannah. “She got separated from everyone by a tree after the storm, and she started yelling for them.”

Naomi is still her aloof self, and “the royals” can’t be apart.

“Diana and Camilla get upset if they’re separated from each other,” says Hannah. “They’re friendly and sweet.”

Marlo Thomas still has beauty and brains.

“Marlo looks very fancy. She’s calm and peaceful,” Hannah says. “She’s smarter than the other chickens.”

And they’re still just as happy to see their people as their people were to see them after the storm.

“The chickens like for everyone to love on them,” Hannah says.