How to cover run to protect from aerial predators?

[Brooks_]

There are a number of people here who use bird netting to protect from aerial predators. They say it has to be the strong kind because hawks can crash straight through the lightweight netting.

I'll counter with: I've had no problems. Not to say it can't or won't happen in two minutes. The stories I've heard have been straight in, not a dive.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Netting on a bigger run will require supports, either upright or upright + perimeter, depending on what you're working with. Netting here is 85/245 lb break/burst with 2" openings.

This portion of my run is approx 15 x 20. The coop obviously serves as the central support (so no other upright support is needed there), and the U-posts around perimeter have a strand of tension wire running from post to post to allow netting to sit up at around 6' (the chain link fence is 4').

 

[journey137]

Rather than try and cover a space that large, you could just offer plenty of cover with pallets raised on blocks or a few pergola type structures. If your seriously set on covering it completely, you could put a ( big post ) in the middle and cover it teepee style with netting or chicken wire.
You'll still have to lock them in at night and maybe add hot wire for ground predators.

We have so many hawks and eagles here it's ridiculous. There's a hawk nest not a quarter mile from our house, an eagle nest somewhere close enough to see the juveniles every year, and that's not counting owls that we don't see at night. During the day, they fly over our house almost constantly hunting. We usually are able to let the chickens out a little bit in the evening just before they want to roost, but if we let them out in the morning or afternoon, they are noticed very quickly and we have to rush them back in the coop. It's such a pain.

The coop is close enough to the house and tight enough that we have not had issues with ground predators so far. They might get brave during the day when food becomes scarce. It's something to consider for sure.

I was thinking put a tall pole or something in the middle, but we also have a lot of wind on our hill so we can't put up something that will catch the wind and rip apart easily. I'm hesitant about concreting a pole in the ground too since that's very permanent and there's going to be no moving it if we do that.

 

[journey137]

Our entire run is built out with lumber and covered with hog paneling so no aerial predator worries. It has a six-post construction with 2x4 planks overlaying the top that are stapled down with wire.

It's also dug in at the bottom with wire too to deter burrowing predators, but I have dogs in the yard and a six-foot privacy fence so hawks are my biggest predator concern where I'm at (and they are everywhere). Redtail hawks and other small hawks are already attracted to my yard because I feed the local squirrels and I have about six bird feeders.

The whole thing cost six hundred bucks to have someone else build out (just labor, not lumber), so not cheap. But for me it was worth the investment to never have to worry about hawks, and I was too short to take on the work myself. I got a private contractor to do it.

I will say this - absolutely shell out for a top on your run that you don't have to lean to get into, because I used a droopy bird netting to cover my run the first year (plus I only had short four-foot wrought iron fencing), and it was a massive pain in the you-know-what. I'd practically have to crawl in to inspect the coop. It didn't get cleaned as often either because I didn't want to have to slouch-crawl around in the run, especially when it got wet or during winter. I also had a small flighty hen escape through the netting where it had worked loose and get killed by one of the dogs.

Now I can just walk straight into the run and do my thing, no crouching necessary. No escape worries. Major quality-of-life improvement and MUCH easier to maintain. Plus it just looks nice too.

Lumber is stupid expensive right now. The taller t-posts are more expensive, but if we can figure out a way to use them, we will pay for them so everybody can walk in and help with chores easier. That much crouching is not a tenable long term solution.

 

[danceswithronin]

Lumber is stupid expensive right now. The taller t-posts are more expensive, but if we can figure out a way to use them, we will pay for them so everybody can walk in and help with chores easier. That much crouching is not a tenable long term solution.

Yeah we were lucky in that we had a bunch of salvage planks to use as the supporting lumber, I think the 4''x4'' posts were the most expensive pieces of wood that we bought.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I was thinking put a tall pole or something in the middle, but we also have a lot of wind on our hill so we can't put up something that will catch the wind and rip apart easily. I'm hesitant about concreting a pole in the ground too since that's very permanent and there's going to be no moving it if we do that.

I don't know if this would work in your case, but I'd seen people concrete support posts into buckets, so they're not sunk into the ground but the bucket base provides more stability than just the butt end of the post.

 

[nicolekathryn]

We followed plans that had us put a support beam across the middle of our rectangular run. Then we made wood frames covered in hardware cloth and screwed the frames together between that support beam and the sides of the run framing to make a hardware cloth ceiling. Over that we have a polycarbonate roof for shade and rain protection.

 

[New Chick In The Backyard]

I found the perfect thing when I was trying to repurpose stuff. I used bird netting! It's used to keep birds out of fruit trees and plants. Super cheap, easy to set up. It's perfect! (I have a few 1x2's (maybe 6 or 7 foot tall) in the middle of the run that I screw the netting to and attach either side to my fence and house, just pull it taut. The wind blows right through it. If you want more info let me know. I will try to remember to get a pic if anyone seems interested. As long as you have something to attach it to on either side, you can easily use the 1x2's to make it high up above your head in the middle. God Bless.

 

[Huntmaster]

I use 2" knotted bird netting very strong and never had anything get through it. I have 50'x100' and 50'x50' main pens for turkeys, I use 2x4s with pvc end caps on top of 2x4s with cable running across to main 4x4 fence posts to support netting. these pens have been up for 5 years now. I also place poles in pvc pipe berried in ground with rocks in bottom so 2x4s don't rot. And that way you can remove or drop poles in heavy wet snows so you can take tension off of netting to prevent any damage. Love it has worked great for me. A few pics to help you kind of understand what I'm talking about . I put netting right over small trees and shrubs even a small building for shade and cover inside pens . Birds love it.

 

[Huntmaster]

I found a few other pics to show more how poles are in ground and netting able to go over tress and shrubs roosts and just about anything you would need under it.