I believe 5 foot. I am 5' 6" and it comes up to my chest.
Welcome to BYC!
) a lean to wooden structure and covered with corrugated roofing panels.. metal ones by my barn and clear or plastic ones where more light transmission or lighter weight is preferred, or even over just a portion.. leaving half with the netting and half *more* weather resistant.
We built that barn ourselves so we def have the means to build whatever we may need. I am going to add some sort of lean to or a few sheets of metal for sun protection somewhere in the coop so they can get out of the weather. Their actual coop is going to go outside the fencing to the right and they will have access to their coop all day if they needed to go in due to rain etc until we get some sort of lean to or covering built for them. As far as making it tall enough to walk under, I doubt we will be able to do anything like that at this point since the pen is already built so I will just have to suffer being bent over cleaning up their pen. Luckily, our property never gets swampy/muddy after a rain. Our ground soaks it up pretty good and is pretty flat, no deep spots. We never have mud besides a few spots in the horses pasture. I am mainly using the netting for protection from hawks or anything that may try to climb in and we can attach the netting to the screws already in the side of the barn which may be our best route when it comes to making sure the netting is secure on the barn side. As for the lean to/covering portion of the pen, I will have to do some research and maybe find a tent like structure I can throw in there for them but like I said they will always have access to their coop as well if they needed to get out of any severe weather. If we have left over metal from their coop were building I may be able to do a little lean to structure that will fit inside the pen with them. I will def try to find a UV protected soft netting, I didn't really think about that being an issue. My concern with regular chicken wire was how we would attach it to the barn and if we can't attach it and just let it hang, my other concern was it scratching up the barn metal when windy or rainy.Welcome to BYC!
What a lovely barn and pasture!
What is your purpose for covering to help determine the "best" way? Predator protection, weather protection, bird containment, etc? How much is cost a factor, and what skills are ya bringing to the table?
Covered netting may help with aerial predators but it won't do anything for weather.. like baking hot sun, pouring rain (sheeting off the roof into the area), snow. etc. It's hard to imagine anyone not facing at least one of those conditions each year.
I built (uh supervised
We were able to use the existing framing in the pole barn to attach the "lean to".
If using soft netting.. I would suggest using something heavy duty and UV protected.. that "bird" garden mesh is crud.. breaking easily, catching and killing song birds often, and leaving lot's of decaying broken pieces around for birds to ingest.
Hope this helps to ask some of the right questions!
Actually.. looks like you may have a similar lean to portion like I'm describing on the back of your barn already (they're almost twins).. So ya, ultimately knowing your long term goal would help (me anyways) as far as what I might suggest or not. It was important for us to still be able to drive an rv height trailer past the side of the barn.. so any consideration (for us) would have to be either higher than that or semi easily removable if needed.
Re.. securing it on the barn side.. we attached 2x4 on the outside with long screws to the wood framing on the inside.. and easily attach most anything desired to that.. Or even just screw directly into the inside wood framing from the outside (through the metal, using gasket screws if desired).. but "hanging" stuff never works out well long term in my experience. Also I would probably go a little higher up on the barn wall side so the fence post was the lowest point.
Best wishes and happy adventures!
Honestly, I get myself into pickles all the time and this is 100% something I would do and/or would happen to me. My bf swears my life is a comedy skit and I need someone with a camera following me around 100% of the time lolI would highly recommend that you raise at least one side, maybe towards the barn, if you have to catch one, it's going to be hard to run like a hunchback... Would make a great funniest home video... Tongue in cheek here...
