Best roof/covering for run in New England?

[KnightsMist]

My hubby finally said YES to chickens, woohoo! I'll be converting an area of my existing barn for the coop and building a fenced run off of the barn. Wondering what material is best for a cover? I live in a snowy area (Massachusetts) so that is a consideration. Do people just continue hardware cloth on top? Another type of woven wire? Bird netting? We may add corrugated roofing to part or all of the run, tbd, but I'm assuming some material would need to go beneath that? Thanks! So excited for this and I want to get it right the first time!!

 

[neo71665]

10x20 of my run is corrugated tin and it works great. I would just make sure you build it strong enough and enough pitch to handle snow. Thankfully I don't have that issue often.

 

[DobieLover]

My hubby finally said YES to chickens, woohoo! I'll be converting an area of my existing barn for the coop and building a fenced run off of the barn. Wondering what material is best for a cover? I live in a snowy area (Massachusetts) so that is a consideration. Do people just continue hardware cloth on top? Another type of woven wire? Bird netting? We may add corrugated roofing to part or all of the run, tbd, but I'm assuming some material would need to go beneath that? Thanks! So excited for this and I want to get it right the first time!!

I went with a solid roof over the entire run. That provides more useable space for the flock and no shoveling out the run for me.

 

[KnightsMist]

I went with a solid roof over the entire run. That provides more useable space for the flock and no shoveling out the run for me.
View attachment 2677882

Your setup is GORGEOUS!! I'm leaning towards a roof but there are some external factors in my situation that may prevent that option being posible.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Do people just continue hardware cloth on top? Another type of woven wire? Bird netting? We may add corrugated roofing to part or all of the run,

Depends on how much space you're trying to cover, what predators you're dealing with, how much snow load you need to deal with, etc. For snow, a solid sloped roof would be ideal.

I have heavy duty netting on top to ward off birds of prey. We don't have too much snow, but when it does snow, we need to go out and knock it off if it starts to build up.

 

[aart]

I'm leaning towards a roof but there are some external factors in my situation that may prevent that option being posible.

Show us what you got(pics)....and what you had in mind(sketches).

My run is not covered(small shelter area under coop) so I have to shovel part of it out.
I have 2x4 wire for a roof, and have to bang the snow off if it starts to stick.

If you don't have a covered roof, think about making your coop larger for those nasty snow days. ChickenCabinFever is real and it can be ugly.

 

[tigger19687]

My hubby finally said YES to chickens, woohoo! I'll be converting an area of my existing barn for the coop and building a fenced run off of the barn. Wondering what material is best for a cover? I live in a snowy area (Massachusetts) so that is a consideration. Do people just continue hardware cloth on top? Another type of woven wire? Bird netting? We may add corrugated roofing to part or all of the run, tbd, but I'm assuming some material would need to go beneath that? Thanks! So excited for this and I want to get it right the first time!!

Also depends on where in mass.
I would make it covered like Dobielover for most of it and then a small section at the end like Aart.
Netting sucks when ice comes or heavy wet snow.
I'm no help with pics of mine as it's a temp run for this year but if you look on my coop link there are pics , I think, of when ice collapsed the netting.

Pics of the area you want would really help us help you

 

[KnightsMist]

Thanks all! Attaching some pix here. Yellow is approx area of run. The coop will be about 10'x11' in my barn and the run we're leaning towards 16x24'. I'll be starting with 8 chicks, I know #chickenmath, but don't expect to ever get over 20 (famous last words?). So size for both coop and run should be plenty adequate. Our neighbor and close friend is an engineer, so he's helping us with the run plans and construction.

Long story short, we decided not to do a solid roof, at least not initially, both due to cost and restrictions with our property (historic, need approval from historic society for everything, and roof would require more extensive approval process and again $$). So like Aart, I'm planning to use 2x4" no climb fencing for the top.

We get started on the project tomorrow, super excited! Also getting chicks tomorrow, will keep them inside for a week or 2 before moving them out to coop. Wish me luck!!

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

My hubby finally said YES to chickens, woohoo! I'll be converting an area of my existing barn for the coop and building a fenced run off of the barn. Wondering what material is best for a cover? I live in a snowy area (Massachusetts) so that is a consideration. Do people just continue hardware cloth on top? Another type of woven wire? Bird netting? We may add corrugated roofing to part or all of the run, tbd, but I'm assuming some material would need to go beneath that? Thanks! So excited for this and I want to get it right the first time!!

In CT this is happening now,

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

I went with a solid roof over the entire run. That provides more useable space for the flock and no shoveling out the run for me.
View attachment 2677882We got the 12 pitch goin' on cause snow here in CT can get bad!