Behind the Scenes Pt. 11: Farm Preparedness: What Stays, What Goes, and How We Planned for Wildfire

Mission Brief

With the Aspen Acres Fire burning across southern Colorado, it has felt like much of the state has been surrounded by smoke, flames, evacuation notices, and uncertainty. The fire has burned more than 100,000 acres, and official emergency information has continued to change as communities move between evacuation, re-entry, and recovery. Thankfully, the immediate threat shifted away from our location, but many other families, farms, and communities are still being affected.

Watching a fire of that size move through our area forced us to take another hard look at our own farm preparedness. We had to stop asking what we hoped would happen and start asking what we would actually do if we were told to leave.

How would we move our family? What could we realistically transport? What would allow us to survive away from home for a month? What would we need if the farm was gone? Most difficult of all, what would happen to more than 500 Coturnix breeders plus all of our growouts if we could not safely take them with us?

There is no easy or universal answer. Every farm has different animals, vehicles, facilities, finances, destinations, and support systems. This is not a set of instructions telling another farmer what they must do. It is an honest look at the priorities we selected and the decisions we made for Zero G Quail Farms.

Priority One: Our Family and the Ability to Leave

So what does Farm Preparedness actually look like? Our first priority was our family. That included each family member, our dogs, medications, clothing, identification, chargers, basic toiletries, and the items we would need to function outside the home for approximately one month.

An evacuation is not a normal overnight trip. You may not know where you will stay, how long roads will remain closed, or when you will be allowed to return. We planned around the possibility that we could be living in a hotel, rental, temporary housing, or with friends while the farm and business were essentially on hold.

Vehicles needed fuel. Phones and battery packs needed to remain charged. Medications needed to be gathered before they were almost empty. Important phone numbers and addresses needed to exist somewhere besides a single cellphone.

The people come first. No cage stack, incubator, bird, building, or piece of equipment is worth delaying an evacuation after officials tell you to leave.

Priority Two: What Could Never Be Replaced

After the basic survival items came the things that could not be replaced or would be necessary if the farm and our home no longer existed. That included business paperwork, insurance information, identification records, digital backups, breeding records, customer information, and important personal items.

Some equipment can be purchased again. A cage can be rebuilt. An incubator can eventually be replaced. Family records, photographs, legal documents, and personal items with irreplaceable history cannot.

Our plan now includes both physical and digital copies of critical records. Important farm information should be available to someone besides the person who normally manages it. Paper files are valuable, but copies should also be backed up off-site or in secure digital storage.

Priority Three: The Birds

This was the hardest part of the plan.

Our main concern was that we did not want to leave more birds than necessary behind, and we did not want anything left behind to be placed in a position where it had to fend for itself. Coturnix are domesticated animals. They are not equipped to be released and suddenly survive on their own.

We also had to accept that transporting every bird was impossible. We maintain approximately 500 breeders throughout the year. Moving that number would require cage systems, trailers, vehicles, feed storage, water systems, labor, and a destination capable of accepting them.

Even if we could physically move every cage stack, how would we care for that many birds at a hotel, rental property, temporary farm, or emergency shelter? How would we continue buying feed if business income stopped? Where would the manure go? How would we maintain biosecurity and water access?

A preparedness plan has to be built around what is feasible, not what we wish were possible.

Step One: Expedite Birds Already Waiting for Customers

Our first livestock step was to expedite birds that were already waiting on completed orders. These birds already had planned destinations, and moving them early reduced the number we would need to manage during an evacuation.

This required direct communication with customers and flexibility from everyone involved. It also reinforced why accurate order records matter. We needed to know which birds were committed, which groups were available, and which customers could safely receive them.

Completing those transfers first reduced pressure on the emergency plan without placing birds into unknown homes simply to move them.

Step Two: Select a Portable Restart Covey

The second step was deciding what we would need to restart Zero G if the farm was lost.

After reviewing our available transportation, temporary housing possibilities, cage capacity, feed requirements, and labor, we settled on approximately 60 breeders divided into planned breeding groups. That number could be housed temporarily at approximately three birds per square foot in portable enclosures while still allowing constant access to feed and water.

Sixty birds would be manageable enough to transport and care for away from the farm. It would also provide more than 40 eggs per day under normal production. Those eggs could support household food needs, hatching-egg sales, and rebuilding through incubation. That daily production would also fit the capacity of a common tabletop incubator without requiring us to transport our cabinet systems.

The goal was not to save every color, every project, or every bird we liked. The goal was to preserve the strongest foundation possible.

Choosing the Breeders That Would Go

We selected the evacuation breeders using the same priorities we have repeatedly discussed in our breeding-program blogs.

Body composition and overall health came first. We wanted sound, well-built birds capable of handling the stress of transport, temporary housing, and a major change in routine.

Fertility came next. We selected breeding groups with the strongest confirmed fertility records because restarting with attractive birds that cannot consistently reproduce would put the entire recovery effort behind from the beginning.

Weight was also a major factor. Our original production focus and a large part of our continuing mission is supporting falconers and raptor organizations. If we rebuilt, our retained line needed to remain capable of producing the size and quality expected by those customers.

A disaster is not the time to restart with weak breeders, unknown fertility, recurring health problems, or poor body composition. The smaller the restart group, the more important every bird becomes.

Keep Backup Breeders and Proven Combinations

We also considered proven roo-and-hen combinations rather than selecting only individual birds. A heavy roo and a strong hen do not automatically create the right pairing. Our records tell us which breeding groups have produced the fertility, body composition, growth, and keeper rates we need.

Emergency selections should preserve enough genetic and family separation to continue breeding without immediately cornering the program. Spare roos and replacement hens can be more valuable than another color project when the goal is rebuilding.

This is where detailed breeding records stop being paperwork and become a recovery tool.

What Would Stay Behind

The decision also required accepting what would not be transported.

Our cabinet incubators would stay. Most cage stacks would stay. Brooder plates, bulky equipment, worktables, and many supplies would stay. Attempting to move those items would consume vehicle space needed for people, dogs, carriers, feed, water, records, and irreplaceable belongings.

Our portable restart plan focused on genetics and the minimum equipment required to care for those genetics. Equipment can be replaced later. A proven breeding line takes years to build.

Step Three: A Humane Plan for the Remaining Birds

The third part of our plan was the hardest: what to do with the hundreds of birds that could not go.

We were not willing to wait until a mandatory evacuation order and then leave birds behind with limited feed, frozen or failed water systems, smoke exposure, or no one legally allowed to return. Evacuation zones can remain closed for days or weeks even when the fire never reaches a specific property.

Our decision was to begin processing or humanely dispatching birds that would not be part of the portable restart group. We started with birds already designated for falconry orders and birds that had passed our 13-ounce benchmark, even when some were not yet at our usual processing age.

This reduced the flock to a more manageable level and allowed us to continue supporting falconry customers. That included Nature’s Educators, who could have faced evacuation conditions at the same time we did and could not be guaranteed access to their normal feeder supply.

This decision was not made because the birds had no value. It was made because they did have value, and leaving domesticated animals without guaranteed care would not have been an acceptable or humane outcome.

A processing-based evacuation plan also requires freezer space, reliable power, cold-chain management, and a distribution plan. Processing hundreds of birds does not solve a problem if the freezer loses power or the product cannot be transported. Those details must be planned before the trigger is pulled.

The Community Behind the Restart Plan

One of the things this situation reminded us of was how much community matters.

Our friends at Guidroz Family Farms, Larry Lyons at Double L Quail Farms, Craig at Beam Farm, Jennifer at Bryant's Roost, and several others offered eggs and support if we had to restart. Knowing we would not be rebuilding alone reduced some of the pressure, but it did not remove our responsibility to protect the strongest parts of our own program.

A farm emergency network should be built before the emergency. Know who may be able to temporarily hold birds, receive orders, provide eggs, transport equipment, store feed, or help process. Also be honest about what you can offer in return when another farm faces the same situation.

Create Evacuation Triggers Before Panic Starts

A plan works better when it has clear trigger points.

During a heightened fire threat, we monitor official updates, fuel vehicles, charge equipment, verify routes, check carriers, and confirm destinations.

During pre-evacuation, we begin loading personal items, moving completed bird orders, staging the restart covey, reducing flock numbers, and preparing food and water supplies.

When an evacuation order is issued, processing and sorting stop. The selected animals are loaded, the family leaves, and the plan shifts from farm management to human safety.

Do not wait until smoke is across the road to decide which carriers fit in which vehicle.

Build a Farm Map and Inventory

A farm emergency plan should include a basic map showing buildings, cages, livestock locations, gates, roads, utility shutoffs, propane, fuel, chemicals, and alternate exits. It should also include a current livestock count, equipment inventory, emergency contacts, veterinary information, insurance contacts, and the locations of critical supplies. Emergency-planning guidance recommends creating both shelter-in-place and evacuation plans and identifying alternate routes in case the primary exit becomes blocked.

Your family may know where everything is, but responders or helpers may not. A printed map in a visible location can save time when the normal decision-maker is unavailable.

Practice the Load Before You Need It

A carrier capacity written on paper is not the same as a loaded carrier in a vehicle.

Test how many transport cages fit. Confirm the doors can still close. Check whether air can move around the birds. Determine where feed, water, dogs, luggage, medications, and documents will go. Weigh the load and make sure your vehicle can safely handle it.

Take the route to your planned destination. Identify an alternate route. Confirm that the destination will actually allow birds and dogs. A hotel that accepts pets may not accept 60 quail.

The time to learn that your plan does not fit is during a drill, not during an evacuation.

Prepare Feed and Water for the Restart Group

Our minimum plan required portable housing, constant feed and water access, and enough supplies to operate independently. We would not assume that the feed brand we use would be available at the evacuation destination.

Feed should be stored in sealed, transportable containers. Waterers should be simple, proven, and easy to clean. Spare cups, nipples, fittings, and basic tools should travel with the birds.

A water system that requires a permanent wall or complicated plumbing is not an evacuation water system.

Wildfire Mitigation Starts at Every Structure

Evacuation planning protects lives. Mitigation improves the odds that there will be something to return to.

The Colorado State Forest Service recommends creating a home ignition zone around every structure, including houses, barns, garages, sheds, and other farm buildings. The zones extend from zero to five feet, five to 30 feet, and 30 to 100 feet from structures, with the most aggressive removal of combustible material closest to buildings. These actions improve the odds of survival but cannot guarantee that a structure will withstand wildfire.

For a quail farm, that means looking beyond the house. Cage buildings, feed sheds, processing spaces, storage trailers, brooders, and aviaries all need to be considered.

Remove the Easy Fuels

Clear leaves, needles, dry grass, feathers, empty feed bags, cardboard, scrap lumber, bedding piles, and other combustible debris from around buildings. Keep gutters, roofs, decks, and the spaces under structures clean.

Colorado State Forest Service guidance recommends mowing grasses and weeds to four inches or less, clearing flammable debris within five feet of structures, removing overhanging branches, and managing slash rather than allowing it to collect in piles.

On a farm, feed bags and bedding can quietly become a major fuel source. Store bulk bedding, cardboard, trash, and unused materials away from livestock housing and primary structures.

Reconsider Firewood, Propane, Fuel, and Equipment

Firewood should not be stacked against the house, barn, or cage building. State guidance recommends keeping firewood at least 30 feet from structures and clearing vegetation around the pile. Aboveground propane tanks should also be separated from structures where possible, with flammable vegetation cleared around tanks and meters.

Fuel cans, generators, chemicals, oxygen cylinders, and other hazardous materials need identified storage areas. Everyone on the farm should know where the power, water, propane, and fuel shutoffs are located.

Give Responders a Way In

Keep gates operational, access lanes clear, and addresses visible from the road. Emergency vehicles need enough width and clearance to enter and leave safely.

The Colorado State Forest Service recommends maintaining vegetation clearance along driveways and installing visible, reflective, noncombustible address signs so responders can identify the property quickly.

A beautifully mitigated property still creates a problem if fire crews cannot locate it or safely reach it.

Prepare for Embers, Not Just a Wall of Flame

Many structures ignite from wind-driven embers rather than direct flame contact. Keep roofs and gutters clean, repair gaps, and screen vulnerable vents where appropriate. Pay attention to spaces beneath decks, cage buildings, storage trailers, and raised structures where leaves, feathers, bedding, and debris collect.

Walk the property as though you were a burning ember. Ask where it would land, what it would ignite, and whether that fuel leads directly to another structure.

Make the Plan Reviewable

Write down the plan. Keep a printed copy. Back it up digitally. Make sure every adult and capable family member knows the priority order, the selected birds, the loading sequence, the destination, and the evacuation trigger.

Review it at least once a year and any time your flock size, vehicles, housing, or property layout changes. A plan for 100 birds is not a plan for 500 birds.

Zero G Final Thoughts

Thankfully, we did not have to evacuate, and the fire moved away from our immediate location. That does not mean the work was wasted. It exposed gaps in our planning, forced difficult conversations, and made us decide what rebuilding Zero G would actually require.

Our order became clear: family and dogs first, one-month survival needs second, irreplaceable records and belongings third, then a small, proven group of breeders capable of restarting the farm. Existing orders would be expedited, the restart covey would be selected by health, body composition, fertility, and weight, and the remaining birds would be handled humanely before evacuation made proper care impossible.

Preparedness is not believing you can save everything. It is deciding in advance what must be protected, what can be replaced, and what responsible stewardship looks like when every option is difficult.

Prepare the farm. Protect the future.