I do have updates. Forgive the length here, if it is more than you were asking.
I can't tell from your picture where you want your aviary run. The lower left side or that upper right quadrant?
How my netting is holding up
1. My oldest netting is 4 years old now, holding up well as far as aging. I bought from Pinnon Hatch, yes their stuff is good, read what they say & believe them. I got the 2" knotted netting and like it.
Get the knotted, not the woven! I am considering the 1" knotted, if the avian flu gets bad here, as that prevents songbirds from getting in. I used the 1" to cover raspberry plantings under tube framing just for when the berries come in and that has worked very well. The 1" behaves more like cohesive fabric than the 2". It is twice as heavy though.
2. It is very strong - under very heavy snow that fell overnight, 99% of it held up extremely well,
BUT for the most part what it was attached to became damaged in places. A cheesy greenhouse frame collapsed under it. A welded-wire walk-in run (Omlet) did well but some places where I had clipped the netting got bent and pulled down a little under the great weight, and in a couple places the welding came apart. The run was entirely repairable and fixable. But the cheesy greenhouse frame tubing was for the most part lost, I salvaged several unbent pieces only.
3. Trees & bushes & the storm - I had laid the netting over a lilac bush (see below) and then around a few trees right next to that bush. For each tree I cut the netting, then went on either side of the tree /around the tree, and wove the two halves back together with good polyester 1/8" rope catching the squares. Then I'd eyeball the next tree and do that again. I held it up by attaching it with carabiners to a length of rope tied around each tree. I had attached it in one to three spots on each tree rope. Two of those places, carrying a ton of load as they were trees toward the open yard, pulled the knotting out, and in one place the net broke at that attachment point.
After the storm I relieved the pressure on the remaining carabiners as best I could, and eventually got the wet and hardened snow off the whole netting piece. I ended up keeping the sewed netting around the trees but removing the carabiners so it could sink down with any more ice and snow to come. I piled the rest of the netting around the base of this group of trees. The lilac bush and a few saplings are still holding up some of it, but I also piled most of that away, up and off of a lot it.
The lesson here is that the netting needs to have an even load along the whole edge and attach points, and the attach points need to be very, very strong. You might want to do the calculations of the potential weight of wet snow and how much area of snow the netting might carry versus the strength rating (245?/85).
One knot of netting alone can't bear a lot of square footage of weight pulling on it, but lots together are strong. But the structire it's attached to must be insanely strong. I would like to know what professional aviaries do in Upstate New York winters. I suspect they take the nets down in winter and house their birds inside.
In any case I have decided I will not leave big stretches up in the Fall /Winter once a snowstorm like what we just had is expected. Since it fell overnight I couldn't (wasn't willing to) be out there clearing it periodically in the night. Also, once it snows heavily like that, it turns out my gang here doesn't have any interest in going outside their dry, spacious roofed run anyway. Even when I shovel a spot for them.
They will stand on the threshold and look out, but that's it. One of the very adventurous hens died late this Fall, and the rest have no interest. So I've just been out there guarding for the couple times when it's warm and bare enough and they actually want to venture out.
Best way to get it up and over some shade bushes - I took a scrap bedsheet and pulled that over the lilac bush and maple saplings. I think my partner might have helped there. Maybe I tied a corner and threw the rope over and my partner pulled? Then I pulled the netting over that! Worked really well! Of course, this was after struggling without the bedsheet for a while as the net caught on every little sprig and nubbin.
The bush and saplings will bend over under the netting unless you attach the other edges of the net at the same height, or support the netting with poles, or something at the height of the bushes. In my case I am fine with it because that bending over makes it even more sheltered. Some leaves and twigs will grow up through it over the course of the growing season, so be prepared for that, if/when you remove the net some will be lost (with 2" netting I was able to feed a lot of new growth back through the squares. But there's some that will rip off).
I WOULD NOT, repeat NOT try to enclose a multi-stemmed bush as if I were doing netting around a tree trunk. Cooper's Hawks will go down through the unprotected middle of that bush. Yes, they are that good at predation and used to manuevering within tight branches and stems.
Easy to install? - Hmmmm not really, but somewhat yes, because it's not that bad once you understand it and what you can expect of it. The bigger pieces - 100x50 - are heavy and more unwieldy. I don't have a nice square clear area with straight strong fences or something straight to attach to, all ready to just lay the net out along the whole length and attach a side edge working my way down all evenly.
Have you ever dealt with professional fishing net? It is the same thing, according to a friend who looked at what I had. So you have to work with what it wants to do.
It wants to catch on every little thing. It's also stretchy, in a sense. It gets manufactured so that width-wise, it wants to stay together initially with the squares like diamonds, even the knotted type. A length of it will come out of the box like a tube. Once you stretch the sides out it will be less inclined, but it's still there a bit. That's the best way to pack it up and store it later too - pull it along the length until it's all straight and wants to come together again, then fold in the sides again and again, then double up the length, and double that again, etc.
I would put it up initially with attachment bits that you can un-do so you can make adjustments once it's up.
Remember to account for sides in your dimensions if you are going to ground with it. I have electric poultry netting surrounding the whole area including coop and run, then have the aviary netting set up on structures within that yard, and the netting goes to the ground on all sides except where it meets the run.
For me - for ease in dealing with it, ease in storage and ease in creating different aviary spaces - I think I would prefer to get small pieces, 25x50 or 25x25, and add adjoining pieces as needed with the smooth polyester rope (I bought this below - it works well, and I was able to pretty easily remove it from the separate netting pieces after the storm, even after it had aged in place for a season
https://qualitynylonrope.com/produc...5FVI0W6rRwElAsggj_DtjpiGDoUBIMKRoCPEgQAvD_BwE ) I just weave the rope in and out of the adjoining squares.
The first year I bought netting, to save money I bought a long length and thought I could cut off what I needed for a smaller separate bit I wanted to cover. Mistake! It's very hard to keep things straight. Might be possible right out of the box to cut the length, but not for me once I had laid it out.
Hope this helps!
