Plywood roof for run?

[TheYoungV]

My husband is going to build a run for our chickens and it's going to be 16 ft long x 8 ft wide x 6 ft high. We're going to use 1/2 inch hardware cloth along the run. We're also going to have the hardware cloth coming out 2 feet on the sides (Like an L shape) and cover that over with dirt so that if a predator attempts to dig, it will run into the hardware cloth and hopefully give up and not think of moving back a couple of feet. My husband wants to make the roof out of plywood since we are on a very tight budget right now.

We're only doing this because we recently lost one of our hens and a couple of her chicks to what we suspect was a fox or coyote. Until recently our more experienced hens were free ranged and our dogs are usually outside with them during the day. They are not LGD's but they're pretty territorial and we've never had an issue until now. At least one of our dogs was outside when it happened, so whatever it was had to be sneaky...

Is the plywood roof a good or a bad idea? We are just trying to save money (that we don't have to begin with) while also trying to make it more weatherproof as we are in NY and get our share of rain and snow. Thanks in advance for your input!

 

[redsoxs]

Plywood, 3/8" or thicker is pretty predator proof. Will take several paints of good deteriorating paint in order to remain waterproof. Raccoons would have to work pretty hard to gnaw a hole though plywood and it should be out of range of coyotes. You could lay reclaimed corrugated tin over the top - waterproof then! Or even staple down additional hardware cloth along seems and edge of the roof. Good luck to you!

 

[TerryH]

Pretty sure that regular corrugated metal roofing will work out to be cheaper than exterior plywood. I did my run with metal and it's worked out great.

 

[TheYoungV]

Plywood, 3/8" or thicker is pretty predator proof. Will take several paints of good deteriorating paint in order to remain waterproof. Raccoons would have to work pretty hard to gnaw a hole though plywood and it should be out of range of coyotes. You could lay reclaimed corrugated tin over the top - waterproof then! Or even staple down additional hardware cloth along seems and edge of the roof. Good luck to you!

Thank you! We will have to see where we can find reclaimed corrugated tin to add over the plywood. That would be ideal!

Pretty sure that regular corrugated metal roofing will work out to be cheaper than exterior plywood. I did my run with metal and it's worked out great.

Thank you! Forgot to mention that we already have lots of plywood we can use. I think we'll be adding the corrugated metal eventually as well.

 

[aart]

Plywood should work fine as long as the walls it's attached to are strong....think 'snow load'...might want a roof rake handy to keep snow load lighter.
You could throw tarp up over it protect wood from weather.