Official BYC Poll: How Is Your Run Covered?

[Ascholten]

Nice! I like that.

 

[carolinabeve]

My duck "habitat" has a 6' 2x4 welded wire fence. Bottom buried in the ground. 2x6 treated boards reinforce the bottom. The coop has no open areas not protected by wire mesh. The top completely covered in heavy duty netting. Free ranging is not an option, because of Hawks & my home is close to the road.

 

[danimajor1988]

The current run is not covered. I know I have hawks in the area (which is one reason I have mostly been running toward larger breeds), but haven't yet had any issues. The run has lots of cover and hiding places. (Not all photos are current, I've been rearranging things as I integrate additions).

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The Chicken Palace, currently in progress, will be an Open Air coop -- integrated coop and run -- with a solid roof. But I'll still use the electric net pen for additional ranging space.

I love this space and it's perfectly set up specifically for chickens and their needs. When I used to see a space like this before I had chickens I would think to myself, that looks messy and a little unpleasant to the eye. But my yard looks just like this now, with things I have put together for my chickens to keep them safe, entertained, happy, and healthy. My boyfriend of 14 years still has a problem with the way our yard looks opting for wanting to make things look a certain way and have things built that look perfect and to eliminate the clutter my chickens need for various reasons. But it's all so necessary and doesn't have to look perfect to any one human because it looks perfect from the eyes of my little Chickies, and it all serves a purpose. I can look at the pictures of your yard and identity what each little structure is used for and I think, how clever!! Funny how perceptions change as you step into the chicken world.

 

[aart]

used baseball-style poultry netting

What exactly is this?

But here's the nice part: we have an old barn vent cap, about seven feet high, from my spouse's childhood farm barn (the barn was torn down a few years ago and her parents graciously let us take the cap). It provides shelter, and the top of it forms a nice pinnacle in the center of the enclosure.

Any pics of this @L7 Farm ?

 

[rosemarythyme]

What exactly is this?


Any pics of this @L7 Farm ?

My guess is like batting cage netting (the company I get my netting from also sells batting cages/baseball supplies).

I'd love to see the old barn topper though!

 

[aart]

My guess is like batting cage netting (the company I get my netting from also sells batting cages/baseball supplies).

Batting cage netting I would get, but "baseball-style poultry netting" confounds me.

I'd love to see the old barn topper though!

Definitely!

 

[3KillerBs]

We are required by our town to keep the chickens from free-ranging, but we also have plenty of airborne predators around, so to maximize their run space we built a cheap fence with chicken wire and metal posts, and used baseball-style poultry netting on top. But here's the nice part: we have an old barn vent cap, about seven feet high, from my spouse's childhood farm barn (the barn was torn down a few years ago and her parents graciously let us take the cap). It provides shelter, and the top of it forms a nice pinnacle in the center of the enclosure. I made "tentpoles" out of a couple of old bird feeder poles and some 8 foot lengths of cheap 2 x 2 -- I cut off about a foot, screwed it on to the top to make a "t", and then buried the pole about a foot deep, using the tension from the netting on top. The netting is stretchy, so allows shaping. The tricky part was getting it over the whole fence enclosure first, but we zip tied as we went and then shaped it with the "tent poles".

What's nice about this is it allows the birds plenty of space to fly around, head room for humans, and it looks reasonably nice. It's not going to keep a determined raccoon, etc. out, but that's what the coop is for. And again, cost-effective

To discourage the local hawks (and occasional eagle) from diving down and getting entangled in the netting, we put some cheap holographic-silver pinwheels on top of the coop, the barn vent cap, and our "tent poles" to spin when it's windy and add glare. This just adds to the circus-tent like feel of the enclosure, of course!

We'll see how long this lasts but we have plenty of extra netting for patches as required.

Photos? Please?

It sounds so interesting and fun.

I love this space and it's perfectly set up specifically for chickens and their needs. When I used to see a space like this before I had chickens I would think to myself, that looks messy and a little unpleasant to the eye. But my yard looks just like this now, with things I have put together for my chickens to keep them safe, entertained, happy, and healthy. My boyfriend of 14 years still has a problem with the way our yard looks opting for wanting to make things look a certain way and have things built that look perfect and to eliminate the clutter my chickens need for various reasons. But it's all so necessary and doesn't have to look perfect to any one human because it looks perfect from the eyes of my little Chickies, and it all serves a purpose. I can look at the pictures of your yard and identity what each little structure is used for and I think, how clever!! Funny how perceptions change as you step into the chicken world.

Thank you.

My DH will be happier once the chicken clutter has been relocated to the back yard, but he understands what it's for.

 

[Heres2U_MrsR]

Mine is covered with chicken wire set into wooden frames and covered with green sunshade fabric. That keeps it shaded in our brutal summers(Texas) and hides them from overhead predators.

 

[L7 Farm]

Photos? Please?

It sounds so interesting and fun.



Thank you.

My DH will be happier once the chicken clutter has been relocated to the back yard, but he understands what it's for.

Just took these earlier this evening. The puppy pen in the middle is for the current brood we're integrating -- they're at five weeks right now so are getting field trips from brooder. The third picture is a little misleading, the fence looks like it obscures the view into the enclosure, but it really doesn't.

The lights are just very low wattage LEDs but they're app-controllable -- a bit of a vanity but it gives us a little illumination in the mornings and now in the evenings, and they add a festive air (they can be set to multiple colors).

The buildings in the back are the historic corn crib and smokehouse that went with the original farm.

As you can see my wife and I have a nice little seating area to watch the hens from!

 

[3KillerBs]

Just took these earlier this evening. The puppy pen in the middle is for the current brood we're integrating -- they're at five weeks right now so are getting field trips from brooder. The third picture is a little misleading, the fence looks like it obscures the view into the enclosure, but it really doesn't.

The lights are just very low wattage LEDs but they're app-controllable -- a bit of a vanity but it gives us a little illumination in the mornings and now in the evenings, and they add a festive air (they can be set to multiple colors).

The buildings in the back are the historic corn crib and smokehouse that went with the original farm.

As you can see my wife and I have a nice little seating area to watch the hens from!

Love the chicken TV theater!