Over head protection without netting.

[Farmer_Phil]

I'm looking for some way to make some sort of cover over my run, it's about 400 square feet. I really don't want to cover the whole thing with netting and how it's built now, kinda makes it hard to do as well. Is there anything else i can string across the top, to keep out the crows and other birds.

I've also actaully witnessed one of the chicken's flying out over the fence, it's about 8 feet tall, but it must have flew from the picnic table inside to a sagging part in the fence then right over.

Thanks Again

 

[ozark hen]

Welcome to BYC! if you go to this link and scroll down to Speckled Hen's photos, you will see she is using some kind of cording/wire threaded with c/d's strung across the tops of her pens. If this does not work then go to :
index
coop & run design
submit coop design pics for BYC by NiftyChicken. That is the thread you want. I am considering the same technique.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=64

 

[ruth]

I had the same problem with my chickens using the baby pens, chairs, dog kennel that was in their run as leverage to jump up and over the 6 foot fence of their open run. I too did not want to cover the entire run. What I did instead was to cover the area over the smaller pens. I used a roll of thin, flexible wire and ran it from one side of fence to the other at 2ft intervals. Then ran some going perpendicular to that - ended up with cross-hatch pattern. Then just laid the bird netting on top of it and trimmed off the extra.

Now when they want to jump up on the other small pens and kennels they can't jump onto fence because there's a netting over their heads.

 

[speckledhen]

Hey, Phil, what I did was crisscross some of that neon pink mason's line-just fancy string, LOL-across my pens and from those lines I hang lots of those CDs you're always getting in the mail or free at Walmart for their internet services. The CD's bounce all over, throwing reflections everywhere and keep a hawk from having an easy time diving. It also messes with his vision to get flashed in the eyes as he's diving. It may not be perfect, but so far no hawk attacks in my pen in two years, and we have a large number of them around.