Blown away in Virginia

[lilchick]

i just use duct tape on edges like mdbokc does.. then use hog rings to attach to sides of kennel.
If you need to hold plastic to the ground try taping bottom edge, then roll a thin piece of wood strip or just fold over the duct tape edge onto the wood and staple it on. This will hopefully make it heavy enough to stay on the ground...

 

[oldchickenlady]

Quote:
I extended the wire out onto the ground and staked it down with metal tent stakes from Walmart. They had 2 different ones, some were about 6 inches long and all metal, then they had some that were about 10 inches long, they looked like a HUGE nail with a plastic piece at the 'head' of the nail to hold down whatever you were staking, in my case the wire. I used both, but the 6 inch ones were not real strong and would bend if you hit a rock or whatever. The other ones are real strong and can go through roots, like a nail, or would break a smaller rock. I will get picks today and show you my setup.

 

[oldchickenlady]

OK, per request, here is the stuff I used to stake down my pvc run.

Now, my run has a 2x4 frame, but this should work just fine on your run, just stake down the bottom of the wire.
Here is my run covered with a tarp and plastic. I put the tarp on first for shade and rain protection at the time I built it, added the plastic to cut down on the freezing cold wind when the temps dropped last week!

I have hay string tied to the wire and run back and forth across the plastic to help hold it down in addtion to the nails at the bottom and being tied to the wire under the tarp.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

The attached run on the Eglu cube is shaped gridded wire. There isn't any framing.

Layering chicken wire or string over the plastic and attaching that to the run sound like good ideas. I bet either one of those would work well. That trick embedding marbles or stones along the edge to have attachment points on the plastic is pretty interesting, too. You are all so creative and I'm going to remember these.

We used a tarp on our chicken tractor the only time it needed extra protection from a big storm. We weighed it down with a bunch of cinder blocks around the edges, where it wasn't tied.

 

[secuono]

You mean the wind that is still going on?
I have a kennel I made of field fencing for our little chicken killer, one end is covered in black tarp. The cage is 12ft by 4ft by 4ft, 5ft end is covered down to 2ft from the bottom on 3 sides. The wind kept flipping the WHOLE thing like it was nothing. I tried small wire, then thick rope. Now I am using thick fencing wire to keep the kennel attached to the tree.
We made the kennel with ends sticking out, so it pierced the plastic on 3 sides and then I cut a long U on each side[front and back] to have strips to use of the plastic to tie itself to the kennel.
If you do cut plastic, do not leave a jagged or unclean edge. Cut smooth so the plastic won't have a way of ripping itself apart.

I'd go with using the plastic itself to tie it. If you make any holes, the wind could easily pull it and tear it. Unless you make plenty of holes/staples only a few inches apart and as smooth to the run as possible.


BTW, it's winter now, what will you do for a ton of rain or 2-3ft snow like last year??
Is it A shaped, so water easily comes off? Snow will be very hard to get off unless the A is very steep.


The kennel, the tree above the 'window/door' is where it's tied to now. The tarp is from the middle of the window, up and over and the short end.

 

[angels4]

Believe it or not there is an Eglu Cube under that very large tarp....I used a few bungee cords hooked together at the front, center and back hooked in the run on one side and the stretched over the run and hooked to the other side of the run...as you can see the gaps at the bottom I placed hay bales to act as a wind break. Last winter out on the island we had winds in excess of 85mph...Worked like a charm.

 

[PattyO]

Thanks so much for the pictures! These are all great ideas. So far I have used twine well actually mason string to criss cross over the top of the run and along the sides and my husband has been collecting large black plastic bags of leaves that we have put along the sides. I would like to ask the person who sent the picture of the cube if she also covers all of the coop in plastic. Which vent slits do you leave uncovered? I took a rolled towel and covered the opening right above the droppings tray as it would blow directly on them. I think the black plastic is absorbing the suns warmth as well as adding a wind block.

 

[angels4]

Quote:
The morning after our first storm the wind caused the snow to "drift" into the cube through the vents so I actually covered the whole of the run and the cube itself with the tarp leaving the tarp to over hang at the back to act as a canopy. As you can see in the photo with the tarp covering the cube I had no acces to the nest box so I actually had to access the nest box through the back. On the side (where the door pulley is) I poked holes through the tarp at the vent opening. I also left the cube door open slightly.

 

[patandchickens]

I would echo what an earlier poster said about 'what if you get a couple feet of snow dumped on it' -- square- or even round-topped runs of that type wire do not necessarily fare well.

So one longer-term solution might be to make an A-frame skeleton out of 2x3 or 2x4 wood (scrap, salvage, whatever) and attach plastic to *that*, then just put over top of your run for the winter and stake it down good and there ya go. This could fold flat for warm-season storage, so it would be reeally easy to reinstall next winter, if you wanted.

If you want to stick with having the plastic applied directly to your run mesh (and will just take your chances with going out and shoving snow off it before anything bad happens), then one good way to deal with the bottom edges is to staple them to pieces of wood, one long piece per side. Using a 2x4 or 2x6 would give some useful weight, but if you have an old broomhandle or anything else of the right length that would work too. Roll the plastic 1 1/4 times around the wood before stapling and then staple through both thicknesses... this will make it QUITE durable. (If you don't do that, just staple the edge of the plastic to the wood in a single layer, it is apt to rip out). Either rely on the wood's own weight, or put a rock or cinderblock on each piece, or stake it down, or whatever seems appropriate.

You can also add string or chickenwire or whatever to the arrangement to keep the plastic from flapping, as you've already done in your current setup.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[BWKatz]

Note of caution... the winds blew my PVC forager flat when I covered it completely with a new tarp end to end... it had no other support. Thank goodness I had milk crates and a kitty litter nest box or my poor chickens would have been flat too. I have since repaired it but only let my chickens out on nice days(no rain or snow) My tarp now allows the wind to go thru the forager over the chickens. I used shower curtain clips to attach my tarp about 4 ft up on 2 adjoining sides with a long iron pipe holding the end down. I also use Plexiglass on one end about 3 ft up. this way they can enjoy the sun and still be out of the wind. Seems to be working now.