serious coop issues (Pictures are up page 2)

[waynesgarden]

I'd still try heat if it meant I might not lose the whole frame. Every gallon of water you melt reduces the weight by more than 8 pounds. Poke a hole in the lowest part of the tarp for the melting water to escape.

You might also try what I did the last storm when snow and freezing rain created a very heavy roof on the top of my hoop-shaped run (1/2" hardware cloth over heavy wire cattle panels.) I took 8' long pieces of landscaping timbers and wedged them between the ground and the underside of the top of the run. You could use 2X4s.

My posts will be there all winter and I'm sure the run will withstand whatever gets dumped on it.


Wayne

 

[chookchick]

Hi Shellie,
I have the exact same set up on my day-run, don't know if it will withstand the snow load that is predicted. Fortunately I have a very sturdy little coop that is separate. Don't have any great ideas, but I can commiserate. Are you in the high wind area also? We are under 80' maples and are shaking in our boots about the weather coming in tonight. Maybe someone has a garage that you could borrow? Good luck!

 

[digitS']

Your Western WA storms are coming here & it's tough goin'!

One 2 day snowstorm dumped over 37 inches of snow on Coeur d'Alene! I feel like I'm in a different part of the world - the alps? I mean, we always get snow but, wow!

I'm a ways west of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and figure there's less here but I'm not driving into Cd'A to check. I had an interesting enuf drive of about 10 miles to the pharmacy, yesterday. It was especially exciting when there was a firetruck in one direction and an ambulance the other way and all roads were unplowed

!

At dawn, it was minus 6 so the snow already here is going nowhere. I'd really appreciate it if the Western WA storm doesn't show up tomorrow like promised. I mean, an 80% chance is a 20% chance that it will miss

.

Today, I will dig out my board pile. The deck and carport roofs must be braced. I'm not sure if I have enuf of the longer 2 by 4's but whatever is there had better be enuf or I'll be making a run to Lowes.

The sun just came out

Steve

 

[lhowemt]

You can buy cable that is meant to melt snow on roofs. Just some wire that creates heat with the electric resistance, meant to be wet. Get some of that and lay it around on the ice, it will melt it, but not in a single day.

 

[patandchickens]

One possibility is to deliberately collapse the roof, YOURSELF, by ripping/cutting it apart, in order to save the structure that supports it from collapsing (which would be much more expensive and aggravating to have to replace than just wire and plastic). Go in there with a bolt cutter or whatever is required to cut your wire mesh, and cut it into panels that will hinge down and/or dump their load of snow.

Good luck,

Pat

 

[L&Schickens]

OK, here are the pictures.

 

[BeardedChick]

Could you cut the tarp and let some of the ice and snow fall through?

 

[chookchick]

Okay here's what I did with my run to clean it off this afternoon, looks like it may work for you: Pull the bulk of the snow off with a hard rake. Go inside and poke the handle up through the wire just enough to crack the icy layer, starting at the edge and working back. Looks like someone will have to pull it off as it is cracked. Maybe too late tonight--perhaps tomorrow you could get it to the point where the chickens could go back in for the day. Hope this works!

 

[waynesgarden]

I'm still having a hard time understanding why you think you can't wedge some poles between the ground and the underside of the wire/ice/snow roof above. You just need some 2x4s to prevent the thing from collapsing. You can clearly get inside and there is plenty of room to wedge the posts in.

Forget about restoring it to its previous state now, but it looks like an easy fix to keep it all from crashing down. Simple posts are all it will take.

Wayne

 

[waynesgarden]

This photo shows the timbers serving to hold up the wire run attached to my coop over the winter. They were just wedged in at various points in the run. Recent ice and snow formed a heavy roof threatening collapse much as yours is. (The storm was followed by temps into the mid 50's which cleared the roof.)

Wayne