MUST cover coop overhead?

[Megs]

my pens are enclosed fully (top and all), i have lots of flying predators, hawks, ealges, falcons, owls, pretty much all of them. plus also land predators such as raccoons (the odd bear/cougar are spotted near my house to)

 

[teach1rusl]

Of course you don't HAVE to cover your run. Many folks free range, and there is no fence OR cover. Just be aware of the risks. If they are beloved pets, you may not want to risk it. If you really like your birds, but could deal with a potential loss or two, then don't cover it. I agree that securing them inside the coop housing each night will help prevent losses significantly, since most predator activity occurs then. But as several others have mentioned, hawks are common daytime predators.

 

[TeamChaos]

I've just put up my first run. I agonized over how to cover the top too- so far I've settled for running big, tight swags of deer netting over the open spots so that a bird of prey would have a hard time getting a clear path to drop in and get at my ladies. They also have a few places to duck under and hide in case someone gets too close. Since the ladies have been out in their run, the hawks have certainly noticed but they haven't ventured very close- I have some CDs hung in addition to the swag. I've also been known to stand out there and wave my fists menacingly

Do what you can but don't bankrupt yourself, watch how the space is used and go from there.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

The only reason I have a top on mine is because I don't have a door from the coop to the run. I don't have to worry about getting up and letting the chickens out or locking them back up (unless I've let them out to terrorize the neighborhood) at night

My older coop that I no longer use, doesn't have the top covered. It was 80x40. It had an automatic door opener from the coop into that run. The smaller 10x10 run did have a wire over the top