Chicks in winter?

[Ballerina Bird]

You should be able to get panels at a lumber yard or a decent home improvement store like home depot, Menard's, lowe's. But ya they probably aren't overly cheap and you also have to frame a structure tooi attach them to over the run so you will also need some lumber and hardware

@blucoondawg I wish I had talked to you before I got started!

@KDOGG331 it occurs to me that I should also mention that I live in a part of the country that has rain but no snow. You might want to look at the reviews on those panels and research them a little to make sure they can withstand your local weather. I got the idea to use them from someone who won "coop of the week" a while back; they sounded like they had done a really careful job with their materials so it seemed like a good endorsement. You could probably search for "polycarbonate roofing" here and find out some stuff, in fact.

 

[TalkALittle]

I would probably not try and integrate a roof onto an existing chain link dog run. It seems too complicated and too much work to do it right. I don't know if you'd be able to get a steep enough pitch to accommodate heavy snow loads.

An idea that comes to mind is to sink some pressure treated 4x4s into the ground as posts and put the roof on that. Then put the kennel under. That will get your birds protection from the weather much quicker than if you were to try and construct an entire roofed run. Then as time, weather and funds allow, you could frame up that larger structure, enclose it with hardware cloth and it becomes a new run.

 

[TalkALittle]

I would probably not try and integrate a roof onto an existing chain link dog run. It seems too complicated and too much work to do it right. I don't know if you'd be able to get a steep enough pitch to accommodate heavy snow loads.

An idea that comes to mind is to sink some pressure treated 4x4s into the ground as posts and put the roof on that. Then put the kennel under. That will get your birds protection from the weather much quicker than if you were to try and construct an entire roofed run. Then as time, weather and funds allow, you could frame up that larger structure, enclose it with hardware cloth and it becomes a new run.

 

[TalkALittle]

Oh, and you don't need a wood framed run to hang tarps. I feed my bungee and ball fasteners through screw eyes but you don't have to. You could just wrap the bungee fastener around the metal frame of the kennel panels.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Thank you all for the help! I'll definitely have to research those panels!

As for putting the roof on the run, that is a very good point and I actually hadn't even really thought of where to attach it. I guess I just sort of assumed it.could sit right on top and I could drill holes in or something but maybe not, I really didn't think of it. I do like that idea of just making a secondary frame around the run though and that seems fairly easy to add the wire to like you mentioned. I think I will have to look into it.

 

[aart]

I bought clear poly tarps. They aren't actually 100% clear. They're more of a hazy, semi-transparent white but they let in a LOT of light. I bought one to fit each of my run walls and attach them with bungee and ball tarp fasteners that I feed through screw eyes that are screwed into the run frame. There is a 6 inch gap around the top where the eaves are open at the rafters that is left open. Each wall has its own tarp so I can just roll them up from the bottom to open up any wall I want. Most times I open the front wall because that is the one that faces the house and lets me see the birds the best. It is also the one that faces my prevailing winds though, so sometimes I roll it down from the top so air can get in but it is up high, well above the birds so they don't get blasted by the breeze. With the gap at the eaves I didn't have any issues with condensation on the inside of the tarps and air quality was always good. When I stand in the run with all the tarps in place I can feel air coming in the front eaves and blowing out the back, but down near the ground the birds feathers don't even ruffle. The sunlight that comes through the tarp raises the temp in the run a couple of degrees higher than the temp outside. Because the run is sheltered from the wind, I can open the window of my coop that faces into the run for ventilation in the coop without worrying that wind or rain will blow in.

The tarps were more expensive than plastic construction sheeting that many people use to wrap their runs, but I can use the tarps year after year. I didn't mind the extra cost because I wanted to be able to roll them up on good weather days. I know that in southern New England we can have some weird warm spells (like this week's expected 60 degrees F) and I wanted to be able to take advantage of those days and open up the run to the fresh air and sun. I winterized the run in early November when the weather was still nice. All the tarps were hung and then rolled up out of the way. It took me all of 20 minutes and most of that time was spent trying to remember where I had stored the tarps. As the weather got colder and we began to have more windy days I just lowered the tarps one by one.

I love my tarps. They are very durable, easy to install and remove, and are able to be raised and lowered as needed. The time and worry they have saved me was definitely worth the extra cost.

Would love to see some pics, wide views and details of attachments and the 'rolling down' aspects of this setup.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Would love to see some pics, wide views and details of attachments and the 'rolling down' aspects of this setup. 

I was actually wondering about that too, especially didn't understand the rolling down part without undoing the whole thing, so would love to see details too but forgot and/or was too embarrassed to ask since i thought the rolling down part should be easy but i didn't quite get it either so I'm glad you asked and details would be nice

 

[TalkALittle]

Weather is crappy now, but I'll post some pics in the next couple of days.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Thank you!

Weather's crap here too now haha

 

[GodofPecking]

I was actually wondering about that too, especially didn't understand the rolling down part without undoing the whole thing, so would love to see details too but forgot and/or was too embarrassed to ask since i thought the rolling down part should be easy but i didn't quite get it either so I'm glad you asked and details would be nice

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=roll-up+blinds+detail