Chicken run with a tree

[qhlover]

I am working on our chicken run the area I picked has a tree in the middle of it. I am looking for ideas on how to put a top on the run. I can post a pic a little later.

 

[rides2far]

You're smart. We built the run, then, added a dead tree for perching/roosting. I'll bet when you are done, it will be amazing. Someone posted this same question sometime ago. You could do a search to find it. Good luck.

 

[Mims]

I have this same problem!!

 

[cstronks]

I've always wondered how the run would look with a tree and basically found myself with the same problem - roofing? Even small trees like apples or peach trees need about 12-15 ft of room up top, and I just didn't know how I could cover my run with a tree in it.

 

[BestLilHenhouse]

I have a small maple in the middle of mine, and I couldn't determine how to roof it with the tree there either. Not a huge deal until the hawks found my yard. I read on a post (which I can't find now!) that someone used fishing line as a deterrent. It was mid-winter when the hawks set up camp outside my yard - so I wasn't going to be building anything anytime soon. I figured I might as well try the fishing line, or it wouldn't be long until I lost another of my sweet little Bantams!

I bought the heaviest gauge, cheap, clear line I could find. Then I strung it from point to point - all over the crazy place. The more haphazard, the better. I started in one spot and just kept wrapping around posts and the tree, pulling fairly taught as I went. When I was done, I tied off the end. It ends up looking like a spider web, and the hawks have a hard time pinpointing it, apparently. I kept it higher near the entrance to the coop and the gate. If I bend over, I can walk under the rest, but that was the only way I could manage it in my particular yard. I do have to say that sometimes I forget, and I clothesline myself...then I laugh. I think the chickens laugh, too, actually.

Anyways, it is now June, and I haven't lost another Bantam. Sooo thankful for that!!! I actually had a hawk fly down as I entered the yard one day in December/January. All of my chickens had run over to see me, so there guard was completely down. It flew down within 10 feet of me, talons first, but it hit the fishing line, just about bounced off, and flew to a nearby tree. That was just enough time for all of the little ones to make it through the chicken door to safety, and the larger flock leaders to get set for battle. (I don't have any roos.) So I saw the line put to the test, and it (at least once) did its job.

Hope somebody finds this helpful...and MANY, MANY thanks to whoever it was that suggested the idea in the first place. If I could find you, I would give you 100% of the credit for the idea and for saving my girls!!!

-Cyndi

 

[leapinlizzard]

I don't have trees in my run, but I have one hen that adores one of our peach trees so much, she has decided to move in

. I couldn't find her last night, but this morning when I came out, she promptly came down, soaking wet, and clicked at me. She let me pick her up and Carry her home.She can get to the tree, but coming back into the yard is a different story. Working on the fortification process now.

Try garden bird netting over the top. It can grow with the tree, but if you are looking for snow protection, I really don't know what to tell you.

 

[LaurelC]

Have you considered making a frame that fits around the tree with enough space to either let the tree grow or remove and replace the frame as the tree grows? You could mount your roofing or wire to it, and allow the top of the tree to be outside the run.

 

[Mims]

Okay, y'all, don't be jealous of my mad skills, okay? This crappy little sketch is what I came up with. My tree is huge, fully mature, and I have one limb about 4 1/2 feet from the ground, and the rest are about 5 1/2 - 6 feet up. I am making 2 boxes or frames, and attaching HW cloth between the 2 frames. I will also wrap the heck out of the trunk with HW cloth, and attach that to the bottom frame, so nothing can get in that way. The top of the frame will be attached to the rest of the frame of my run, so that the tree can stick out of the middle. Shade is critical to my poor chickens in the heat I have here.
I will have 2x4 run from the bottom frame to the ground, to support both of the tree frames as much as possible. Overall, my run is going to be 6' tall, and that 4' limb is killing me, but this will allow me to work around it. The rest of the run will be covered with sheets of steel roofing. I don't want anything nailed or screwed into the tree itself. This will allow a kind of floating frame, if you will.

Look and sound plausible? Any thoughts or improvements I could make (I'm sure there are many!)

Don't laugh at me, here's my sketch.




This is the actual tree, ignore all the crap around it, last property owner used this to dump his junk. Poor tree. It's a little beaten from a massive ice storm we had this winter.