MUST cover coop overhead?

[4Shadow]

I'm sure this has been answered (apologies!) but my goal is to provide lots of outside space for chickens that we don't have yet. The complicating factor in our planning always comes back to difficulties with enclosing the entire top for a large area.

If I bring the birds inside every night...is the feeling that the 'day' (overhead) exposure to predators is minimal? It would be somewhat supervised through the day - and predators (on foot) very unlikely. So are hawks likely to bother them etc?

 

[Mahonri]

coop and run need to be covered overhead to keep them completely safe...

... and bringing them in every night? That's a hasssle.

 

[elmo]

There's really no hard and fast rule. It all depends on your area (lots of hawks or few?) and your tolerance for risk. And the size of your run, and how feasible and/or expensive it would be to cover the run with the various options for that.

Some people put inexpensive plastic deer netting over the run, or string wires with dangling shiny items, like cds. Of course, as you correctly note, this won't keep the more determined night time predators out, so you do need to lock your chickens up securely at night.

There was an interesting post here yesterday about how one BYC member encourages crows by putting out peanuts for them, and also puts up fake crows around her property. Crows, of course, harrass and chase raptors out of the area. I might not use this as my only means of raptor deterrence, but it's an interesting idea I'm going to try out. My runs are roofed and covered with hardware cloth underneath (I'm obssessive, and the runs are pretty small anyway), but I do let my flock out to free range in the yard under my supervision, and I want to reduce the risk of raptor attacks as much as possible.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Hawks are an issue for chickens in runs. I don't know how bad your area is. I would try to do something to protect them from hawks. How large is your run going to be?

 

[BethieofVA]

Hawks and owls are issues here, so my run is covered. You can see a few pics on this thread. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=336508 I have already seen one hawk perched on the fence watching the birds.

Well, now that I look back at the pics, you can't see. The lower end is wired and the rest it the clear roofing material you can buy from Lowes.

 

[hearthnsoul]

I did the covered run, my husband opened the door and that was that,..ducks and hens free range all day. I am always paranoid something will happen,...and yet I quickly got on board,..he was right the chicks are very happy, they roam all day. Before that the chicks were in an open corral. A few weeks ago I started letting the ducks out too. Let me say though a falcon grabbed a squirrel the other day out behind the corral and I said to my husband we should keep them in the run for a while. But we couldn't they were just miserable because they didn't get the concept of staying in the run anymore. I can't even believe myself now, I actually go out in the morning and let the 2 week old chicks out to travel around with the hen. Things I know I shouldnt do, I find myself following my husband way now. I think it is key, what sort of predators do you have in your area,..do you have a dog that marks his area to keep out alot of potential problems? I have risk, went the extra mile but as a personal choice I see my hens don't have much use now for a covered run, to keep them in it now would bring down their quality of life because of what we have allowed.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm glad to see you to bring them in every night. Many predators are much worse at night. There are still risks during the day but much more at night. If you let your chickens roam during the day, there is always a risk from predators. Around here, the only ones I worry about during the day are dogs, foxes, and coyotes on the ground and hawks from the air. I think they could pretty much get away from most anything else during the day. Which ones you are at risk for of course depends on your local conditions. Your risk tolerance as somebody mentioned also plays into it.

You can help protect your chickens from hawks by giving them something to hide under. Bushes, raised buildings, maybe even children's toys like seesaws or such. I read on this forum where someone put an old satellite dish on its face up on blocks to give them a hiding place. It's not that this will completely keep them safe from hawks, but it will help. Of course, if you have a lot of bushes to help protect them from hawks, you give foxes hiding places to ambush them.

Many decades ago, when I was growing up, my folks kept chickens in the country and never locked them up, even at night. They totally free ranged during the day. We would sometimes go years between predator attacks, but then a fox or dog would find them and have to be dealt with. Although there were hawks all around, we never lost one to a hawk. others have totally different results and lose a chicken almost immediately upon starting to let them out. I certainly do not advocate not securing them at night, but how much freedom you give them during the day will depend on your specific local conditions and your risk tolerance. If you have a laying flock of say four hens, the loss of one will probably be devastating. If you have a free ranging flock of 40 chickens, you can better tolerate an occasional loss, but once a predator finds them, they will be back.

It is a personal decision. Good luck whichever way you decide.

 

[SandyK]

Yesterday a hawk swooped down right in front of my neighbor and nailed a dove. This was during the day. Also, I have seen the fox peering into my covered run during the day. IMHO never can be too safe for my girls.

Sandy

 

[Rainbow Advaya]

I can't even imagine how I'm going to cover my run even though it really needs to be. I don't know the exact measurements, but it's made of chain link, the long sides are the really long panels you can get at lowes (they're so long I'm not sure how we're getting them from my mom's house to here... we're going to have to tie them to the roof of the truck and off the back I guess..) and then the shorter sides are still a decent length. It's big enough that my 8x6 coop is going inside of it and only taking up about a 1/4th of it. I am in an area that will probably need to be covered. There are no trees and nowhere to hide. The best I can do is probably to cover it with tarps until I can get wire, and just do it bit by bit. How long can tarp hold up? A few months at least, right?

Has anyone used tarps to cover temporarily?

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I have one that's on it's second year. It's not one of the cheap ones, though.