Net over the run?

Sounds like they are using bird netting. You can get it at your local grange or garden store. It would probably be cheaper and easier than chicken wire. It should keep your girls in and avian predators out. It may not work with crawling/climbing predators though. Effectiveness would depend on the critters in your area.

 

I've recently finished building a new coop for my 4 week old chicks and put them out in it yesterday. My older chickens (4 hens and 2 roosters, one of which is a banty) are in a coop inside a 10x10x6 chain link kennel. It had one of those sun shades on the top of it. I decided to switch the kennels out and give the chicks the one with the sun shade and I put the bird netting on the other one for the big chickens. My rooster wanted to investigate the chicks as soon as they were let out of the coop yesterday morning, so he tried to fly straight up in the air to get over the fence. That $6.00 bird netting stopped him in his tracks. I'm not using it as a permanent solution, but for now it's serving its purpose. The size of it is 14x14. I think Lowe's has it for a little over $5 but I picked mine up at WalMart while I was there. I'll see how it goes for now with that on there, but when the chicks get old enough to hang out with the older chickens in the run, I'm going to take a panel off of each of them and make it a 30x10x6. I do have hawks here, but none have discovered my chickens so far..(knock on wood). They free range around the yard for several hours every day, pretty much staying close to the coop/run. When I did put the bird netting on top of the run, I made sure it had some "give" to it, in the event we did experience an aerial assault, it wouldn't be as inclined to break. I think the zip ties I used to attach it would break before the netting does though. My 17 year old son was yanking and pulling on it earlier and it was pretty strong. It will NOT stop racoons however, so if you go with it, make sure you close your coop at night!

 

I'm in the process of covering my run right now and I am using wildlife netting ( similar to deer netting). I am stringing wire crossways between the posts on my run then laying the netting over it and wiring it to the sides and at the seams. I've gotten half of it done already and I did it by myself (I'm a 16 yr old girl) so that proves that its super easy to do

 

Spent most of a beautiful fall Sunday putting a 25'x50' net over my 16'x36 chainlink run. What a frustrating project! With the help of my sulky son, we finally wrestled it into place. Had to lock our 3 summer kittens in the house as they thought we were providing the best type of chase and pounce game they ever saw. I worry about hawks... I have a lot of tree cover for the hens in summer, but winter hungry hawks and leafless trees... thought I better go safety first. I also had 2 hens that think they are girl scouts and need to "camp out" at night instead of joining their brethren in the coop. Netting fixed their survivalist tendencies. I never thought keeping chickens safe would be this hard. I think back on my earlier coop and run ideas and realize that I may of well as put them on a silver platter for the coons.

 

I know this has been a while, but did you use anything to support your net in the middle, or did you just stretch it across that 16' distance? That's about the size mine is, and I'm trying to figure out how to stop it from sagging down in the middle.

 

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I saw a video on YouTube where the guy used a 4x4,whatever length, with a 5 gallon bucket on the top to prevent it from tearing the netting, pretty simple idea and it looked to work well.