How do you protect open coops from bad weather?

[ragingowl77]

I am building a coop with 4 open sides. The roof is going to have overhangs on all sides, but I was wondering what everybody does when bad rain storms are coming. We live in southern Georgia, so we don't worry about snow. I was thinking of putting hooks up and hanging tarps with weights on the bottom, but if there's a better way, please share!

 

[DobieLover]

It would probably be easier for you if you at least had a solid wall on the side of the coop where the prevailing rains would enter. Then for the other walls I would make a tarp with grommets on both ends that you can slide across either on a rope or pipe or whatever. That way you can slide it out of the way when you don't need it and draw it back out when you do. You may also want to have some other kind of rod mid span to keep it from flapping too much as the birds definitely don't like that.

 

[3KillerBs]

I put a 3-sided shelter on the side of my coop that faces the winter winds and, during the worst of the winter, zip-tied a tarp to the open wall to add extra shelter to the roosting side since we can get storms from any direction.

There are photos in this article showing the built-in hot-climate features: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/hot-climate-chicken-housing-and-care.77263/

And this thread showing the tarp and what happened in a snowstorm: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/open-air-coop-in-the-snow.1508695/