Plastic Wrapped Runs???

[azygous]

I live high up in the Rockies where winter winds blow 60 mph. It goes without saying that wrapping my pens with plastic is a winter necessity. However, the very first wind after I put on the big sheets of plastic, took a weak corner, and next thing I knew, my pen looked like a sailing galleon.

I figured out that building smaller, light-weight wood frames and stapling the plastic to those was a far better way to go. The panels are about four feet wide and as tall as the pen fence. I secure them to the fence with wire. I face the stapled side of the plastic toward the fence so that the wind can't get under the plastic and work it loose.

Mounting the plastic on smaller frames also allows you to take them down easily, one or two perhaps on the south sides, for ventilation on unseasonably warm winter days, and they go back up quickly when the weather changes.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Quote:
Thanks....that's a good idea! The pens would still be open on top because we get too much snow and they'd collapse if I tried to cover the tops with plastic...eventually, I'd like to do metal roofing over all of my runs but financially that's not an option right now....I've been wanting to try the plastic around the runs for a long time...I think it might cut down on how much I have to lock each pop hole door at night and count chickens and then try to remember to unlock them all in the mornings...

 

[Tambo26]

If anyone is interested in being able to actually see inside their runs and the chickens being able to see out... I purchased some perfectly clear plastic (avail in several thicknesses) at Joann Fabric. I used it to cover one section of my run. Not cheap. You buy it by the yard like fabric. My girls love to be able to see out though... and I love to be able to see them too! The rest of the run I used transparent plastic which is not clear.