How does tarps hold up w/ snow in winter?

[Smitty's Farm]

Our run is a wet mess with the week long of drizzly, cold rain. We have one sect that has a tin roof behind coop to give a little protection, but it's not enough. I'm thinking of getting a few tarps to provide them a few more dry areas in the run. The rest of the run has chicken wire over the top to protect from hawks. It's supported by poles running on top of our run's chain lenth fence.

Who else has used tarps in the winter?

Thanks,
Kim

 

[nccountrygirl]

I use tarps and they work great. Keeps my run good and dry

 

[silkiechicken]

I use tarps year round. Get the silver grey ones. Blue ones only last like 2-3 years. Grey for lilke 5-6 years. It depends on how much sun they get and the type of weather though.

 

[Smitty's Farm]

Thanks! I hope to add more tin over the top in the spring, so I'm hoping the tarps will be a quicky fix until we can finish the run. Right now the rain is dripping off the tin and making a mess by the only dry protection that they have. I've put wood shavings and straw, but they've stirred it around and it's all wet to.......just a mess. I bought some playground sand to help with drainage.
I just want them to stay dry when temps drop. Hope it hold with the snow coming.
Thanks,
Kim

 

[Smitty's Farm]

Quote:
Thanks! I'm off now to go get some right now. We have some, but kind of wore out from leaf removal. I'm going to get some more straw and wood shavings.

 

[mlheran]

Quote:
I second that! The silver-sided (brown on other side) ones are MUCH heavier, MUCH more well-made, and will last MUCH longer than the cheaper colored tarps that will dissintegrate within a year or two (depending on site condition). But yes, they do cost a bit more -but they are worth it!

I can't speak for the snow (what's that?

), but I imagine that if you angle and support it right it'll do fine.

 

[Smitty's Farm]

Thanks you guys sooooo much! I just wish we could have finished everything before winter, but have been to busy. They at least have a roof over their heads. It's a flock of 16 (6 RIR pullets, 5 EE pullets, 4 SLW pullets & 1 surprise SLW roo). They are about 8 month old now. The coop is 8x10, but a little smaller on the inside b/c of insulation. We have some holes on front top for ventilation.
2 windows on side wall.....closed the north one and south one is cracked b/c I don't have enough ventilation yet. Need to add a vent on back wall. We have nest boxes and one roost completed.
I'm not using heat, b/c the coop is above freezing at night so far. It will interesting to see what inside of coop temps will be when weather hits tonight.

 

[TxChiknRanchers]

It probably depends on the support you have to hold up the tarps. If the support is adequate and there is enough pitch to let the melt run off, tarps should be ok.

 

[Smitty's Farm]

I hope it will hold.

I will have to figure out the pitch for run off. It's the ghetto run right now. Not pretty at all. My BIL gave us an old dog kennel to use for the run. It's about 6 ft tall. Front pannel is 14' with a few entrance gates. north side is 20' long, back is 20' long and south side is 14'. Some of the coop is enclosed in run, but not the whole thing. Pop door is on north side of coop that leads inside to run.

We have some metal poles (recycled) across the top lenght and width, so I think it might hold. We just had to get something up quick to protect them from hawks. I don't plan for it to stay like that. I wasn't happy where we put coop and run, so I didn't finalize everything.

I would like to enlarge the run even though it is required footage per bird.
oh well......just have to make do with what we have.

Gotta run so I have time to do it all before my daughter gets out of school.
Thanks!

 

[silkiechicken]

I run a really high pitch. The angle of the tarp to the ground is probably about 35-45 deg and the wet snow here still sticks