Roof Covering? Quick need to leave in an hour

[AllisonK]

We are building our run today and I realized I do not have enough hardware cloth for the top. So I need to leave an get some in about an hour. What should I get? Hardware cloth or chicken wire? The walls will be hardware cloth and roof is about 6 ft tall. We do have raccoons and possums and there is a large tree above the coop something could easily climb up. Want to save costs if possible.

Reason I said quick is cause I have 4 kids and I need to get everything at once. To hard to go back again.

Thanks,
Allison

 

[LoneCowboy]

Depends on if you leave them out at night or lock them in their coop. Safest thing would be to use hardware cloth. I lock my girls in their Fort Knox coop at night, so I just put some red wood lattis up for shade and keep the hawks out.

 

[Chirpy]

I agree with LoneCowboy. If you can afford it hardware cloth is always the way to go. If you need to save costs (like most of us), make sure you lock them inside at night and use something inexpensive to keep hawks out.

Some people hang old CD's across the top of the run, it confuses the hawks. Others use chicken wire on top or lattice (like LoneCowboy).

 

[CritterHill]

Hardware cloth is the safest.

Raccoons can tear through chicken wire, so if you have raccoons, I'd stay away from chicken wire.

We are going to use welded wire for ours. Cheaper, but bigger holes. But since it is overhead, I think it should be ok unless those raccoons have REALLY long arms.