Help for chicken yard design?

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I've seen those eagles while in Alaska. Other than spending a small fortune to make a large Fort Knox, I don't know what I would do to protect my free ranging chickens from them; they're strong, smart, and fast.
I'll be watching this thread to see what others suggest.

I'm not in Alaska but what we did for our run was to crisscross wires across the whole run. It might not deter predators that are hell bent but it makes it awful hard for a bird to dive down and grab a chicken. The wires are just over our heads so we can stand up in the run. They are visible to the predator birds. My husband used the kind of wire you would use for an electric fence. So far, so good. An owl was hooting in my yard the other night when I got home late to close the door in the coop, but he didn't get in the run.

I was just going to suggest the wire "plaid" pattern roofing. I am in the process of changing my deer netting run covering for the wire criss cross. The fall leaves in Ohio just make the netting sag, and the hens are afraid to come out of the coop when they see the dark blotches on the netting! The wire crossing the top of the run like a plaid pattern would allow snow, leaves, etc to fall down, but make a predatory bird think twice about diving inside the run as they fear getting caught up in the wires. I saw a picture of one such run covering where they tied little tags or ribbons on the wires to make them even more visible and to add a fluttering effect. I hope it works as we lost one of our BO last December to a hawk before we tried the netting this spring. I had those poor birds on coop lockdown for months! We have also added two strands of electric wire around the run to help deter the fox that took killed another of the hens last December. Hopefully we will be better prepared this winter!

A woven barrier sounds good, but I really like the idea of fluttering ribbons. I bet plastic survey tape would work really well.

Thank you, thank you for the wire woven roofing idea! It seems like it would be a lot easier to build, will protect the flock and will also allow for sunlight in the yard. I will also be a lot less expensive to modify our existing yard. It's so simple that I may be able to complete it in an hour or so, instead of the weekend it would take to construct and "A" frame!

Happy scrambling!

juneau chickens, We're thinking about repurposing our dog's seldom used dog house into a coop. It's a great size, shingled roof, insulated and is wired for a heat lamp. Fingers crossed it will save a great deal of cost and construction to simply add to it. I've also heard from other folks in town that the lamps used for snakes and other reptiles are great for use with chickens in our area. I like the idea of the chicken wire fencing roof - that sounds like it should be a great low cost, low maintenance solution. Good Luck and we'll let you know how things pan out for us this Spring!