Coming out of lurkdom... need help figuring out what to do with the top of my run! :)

[Jackthlion]

Hi everyone! I'm a long-time lurker finally getting my coop and run finished but I need some help!

We've already made a bunch of mistakes (like um, I should've put the coop OUTSIDE the run), but I keep repeating the phrase "It's a coop, not a castle" to try and keep myself from being TOO picky.

So here's a pic of what we've got so far. The coop is 4 x 4 and houses 5 birds. The run is 12 x 22 and was originally a dog pen that was on the property when we bought the house. We added 8ft 2x4s to the existing posts and started running chicken wire. I know, I know, should've used hardware cloth. We still will, for the bottom half (which hasn't been done yet).

The big question is what do we do for the top? We have broad-winged hawks, among others (but they worry me the most as they roost in trees and swoop down, rather than circling from high up). As you can see from the pic, the run is up against a small wooded area. We live in a suburban neighborhood on half an acre, but the woods are big enough to bring us deer occasionally. The trees are old and covered with ivy so my husband is worried that any branches that fall might take down the whole run. I don't want to remove any of the trees because we live in the south and they provide shade.

Would something like this bird netting work on top? That way if a branch fell, it could just pull down the netting but not the whole run? Would that keep out hawks? Are there other predators that I'm not thinking of? We live in Charlotte, NC.

Thanks so much for your help!
-Alyssa

 

[akovia]

Hi everyone! I'm a long-time lurker finally getting my coop and run finished but I need some help!

We've already made a bunch of mistakes (like um, I should've put the coop OUTSIDE the run), but I keep repeating the phrase "It's a coop, not a castle" to try and keep myself from being TOO picky.

So here's a pic of what we've got so far. The run is 10x20 (ish) and was originally a dog pen that was on the property when we bought the house. We added 8ft 2x4s to the existing posts and started running chicken wire. I know, I know, should've used hardware cloth. We still will, for the bottom half (which hasn't been done yet).

The big question is what do we do for the top? We have broad-winged hawks, among others (but they worry me the most as they roost in trees and swoop down, rather than circling from high up). As you can see from the pic, the run is up against a small wooded area. We live in a suburban neighborhood on half an acre, but the woods are big enough to bring us deer occasionally. The trees are old and covered with ivy so my husband is worried that any branches that fall might take down the whole run. I don't want to remove any of the trees because we live in the south and they provide shade.

Would something like this bird netting work on top? That way if a branch fell, it could just pull down the netting but not the whole run? Would that keep out hawks? Are there other predators that I'm not thinking of? We live in Charlotte, NC.

Thanks so much for your help!
-Alyssa

Clearly, you are giving your challenges proper thought, and I think the folks here will make many good suggestions for you. My 2 cents worth: regardless of which specific predator types your neighborhood offers, you need to reinforce the top AND bottom of your run. Topside, if you refer to plastic bird netting, please don't. I've seen birds as small as Robins pull holes in it to get to my blueberries. Chicken wire will stop hawks, ravens, and the like, but raccoons blow through it like a dose of Castor Oil through a widow woman. Raccoons, like foxes, rats, dogs, will dig under the run, so you should either bury 8"" to 10 inches of hardware cloth, or lay a 12" perimeter on the ground surface around the entire run. I have easy digging soil and chose the former. You should re-inforce the lower two feet of the run with hardware cloth because, eventually, some persistent critter will tear a hole in the chix wire. Finally, I placed MY coop inside the 8' by 16' run; it is elevated 2.5' for shade and dry ground for dusting, but the nest boxes protrude outside the run, and the clean out door as well. So, I don't have to enter the run to gather eggs or clean out the coop.

I tried to attach a pic of my coop and run, but apparently I "do not have permission to attach files".

 

[citychickx6]

I would think you would have a lot of different predators there.
Raccoons can be awful to deal with.
I wish I had a solution for you.
The branches falling would tear up pretty much any roofing I could suggest.

Maybe a steel roof and cutting some branches out?

 

[Jackthlion]

Eek! I didn't know raccoons climbed. Now I'm worried

We have neighbors with chickens (sort of our "chicken mentors") that have their run mostly uncovered (small amount of chicken wire and the rest with low-hanging trees so at least circling hawks can't see them) and they act like we're being paranoid when I talk about completely enclosing ours... But their yard is fenced and surrounded by other houses, so I'm sure they don't have quite the amount of wildlife that we do.

Raccoons can get through chicken wire? So is the only option surrounding the entire thing in hardware cloth? I don't know how we'd support the middle of it though... Considering the run is 10ft wide.

We're planning on locking them in their coop each night if that helps at all.

Man, wish I could start over.

 

[citychickx6]

We even had a fox in the yard (in the middle of town). Bugger could not get in the run or the coop since mine is fully enclosed and skirted. Darned thing was sitting on the step in front of the coop waiting for me to open it.
I did all right, I opened the dog kennel and let 2 one hundred and twenty pound dogs do a lap or two around the main yard where my coop is.
That fox cleared a 6 foot chain link fence with room to spare.
It was 4:45 in the morning when this went down. I am glad I had read on here about predator proofing and went to the hassle of wiring my run top. What we did to wire it was run 2x4's across and put the wire on top of that. It was a pain but well worth it. At 10 foot across you could do similar. My current run is about 12 foot across and about 20 foot long.
I am in the process of expanding my run and adding a steel roof.

I love my chickens and feel lucky to be able to have them.
Not going to let some nasty critter get em.

You can kind of see it in these pics.








If you click on the pic it should make it larger.