Official BYC Poll: How Is Your Run Covered?

How Is Your Run Covered?

  • With netting

    Votes: 82 23.3%
  • With hardware cloth

    Votes: 77 21.9%
  • With a solid roof

    Votes: 131 37.2%
  • With a tarp

    Votes: 60 17.0%
  • My run isn't covered

    Votes: 57 16.2%
  • Other (elaborate in a reply below)

    Votes: 29 8.2%

  • Total voters
    352
Run is made with hardware cloth covering roof sides and into ground. It is also covered with clear panel roofing.
 

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For many chicken keepers free-ranging the flock is not an option, so their birds are confined to a chicken run most if not all the time. Chickens kept in coops with a run attached are easier to keep safe from predators. Chicken runs can be basic with wires strung across the top to discourage flying predators like hawks or they can be elaborate with a complete wire roof that is high enough for you to comfortably enter the run to clean.

So please share with us: How Is Your Run Covered?

Please place your vote above, and please elaborate in a reply below if you chose "Other".

View attachment 2762068

Further Reading:
Check out more exciting Official BYC Polls HERE!...
My coop is inside a 10x10x6 dog kennel that I purchased from tractor supply. I purchased their roof, that is a canvas like fabric…it’s quite tall and sturdy. I put a ring of garden cloth/hardware cloth around the edge of that..
 
I’ve tried netting to cover mine before, but honestly I wouldn’t recommend it. Hawks can still get through it easily, as well as climbing predators.
Hawks don’t come through netting for predator birds or cat netting.
And I doubt it if climbing predators will bite through the netting , when it is above 5 or 6 foot. They do need some time to bite trough. But yes, with a roof next to the netting where the predator can sit comfortably and chew/bite it’s not safe.

P.s. I had a sparrowhawk in a tree next to the run and it has been lurking there for a long time. But eventually he left. Leaving the netting as it was. Sparrowhawks grab pigeons and small chickens like Dutch bantams
 
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For many chicken keepers free-ranging the flock is not an option, so their birds are confined to a chicken run most if not all the time. Chickens kept in coops with a run attached are easier to keep safe from predators. Chicken runs can be basic with wires strung across the top to discourage flying predators like hawks or they can be elaborate with a complete wire roof that is high enough for you to comfortably enter the run to clean.

So please share with us: How Is Your Run Covered?

Please place your vote above, and please elaborate in a reply below if you chose "Other".

View attachment 2762068

Further Reading:
Check out more exciting Official BYC Polls HERE!...
 
I have a 10x20 secure run attached to the coop that is wrapped in hardware cloth and the roof is tin. I let them out into a yard that is fenced deer netting that is also over the top. . I ran 3 strands of electric fence around it. 7'x100' rolls of deer netting from Lowes. We have hawks, eagles, owls, coons, bobcats, etc.
They are locked in the secure run and coop at night. I only let them out in the yard during the day. After garden season, they get 1-2 hour field trips to the garden to free range while I am working in it. So far, so good!
 
Their lean-to coop is roofed with 1/2” plywood, tar paper, and topped with rolled asphalt.
For their 50’ long by 10’ wide run, I have 20’ long 3/4” pvc hoops holding up shade cloth over bird netting.
 
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Part of our run has a plywood and metal roof. Part of our run is only covered in hardware cloth. Almost half of the hardware cloth area has a doubled over reed privacy fence ziptied to it for additional shade.
 

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