It all depends on what predators you are dealing with and how bold they are. I would let them out under supervision into the uncovered area. I've dealt with all kinds of predation over the years. It is hard to always get everything right. You just do the best you can, and tweak as necessary.I haven’t been on here for a while bc a raccoon slipped into my coop that I thought was secure and killed the last on my flock. I haven’t gotten anymore bc I wanted to give myself a break from the devastation that caused and to fix the problems with my coop. I think my coop is now secure and I wanted to extend my run to give them a lot more room since I will not be letting them free range much. I have a closed in run, but was thinking about using a lot of the trees I have around the run to wrap netting around the trees and make them a bigger area to free range, but only get where I want them. I want to do this in a big space and wouldn’t be able to cover it with wire. Would be covered by tree leaves and then would have access to get to their secure run, but would have a bigger space to venture out. Good idea or no?