Shade in the run?

TheOgdensmenagerie

Songster
6 Years
Feb 4, 2017
314
314
201
Eastern Montana
I am building my run and I have never thought about shade! There are no trees around and being as it gets to 115 here in the summer I feel they need shade!
What are ways to incorporate shade without putting a roof on the run?!
 
I am building my run and I have never thought about shade! There are no trees around and being as it gets to 115 here in the summer I feel they need shade!
What are ways to incorporate shade without putting a roof on the run?!

Cheap??? I buy all the soiled/stained large sheets at yardsales I can find. Staple a strip of a board to 2 ends all the way across---hang on your pens where ever you got room. Replace when needed----should last a few months. That's Cheap!!!

For a few dollars----I buy all of those 10x10 pop-up canopy frames I see that the top is torn up on----take a king size sheet---tie the 4 corners in a knot and use wire to secure the knot to each leg----works Great----but I do stake it down.
 
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For ours it faces where the sun comes up in the morning... the coolest part of the day. So sun shines in the run in the morning only. The left side and back are solid walls . So that by mid day- sundown the hottest part of the day the sun is shining from the left and then behind the coop /run and so the inside of the run is shaded during the hottest part of the day.
And when it gets over 75-80... they stay in the shade the whole time.
So with your temps of over 100 i would certainly be sure they have plenty of shade!

Sorry edited to say i didnt see where you asked for without a roof on the run. Our run is covered. Sorry!
 
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I was thinking that thick black or green kinda mesh shade material that they use for privacy screens could possibly work?
I can cover part of the run and let them have sun to bathe in the other.
 
The tarps that are metallic silver (reflective) on one side, and black on the other. Roofing with insulation. Moving forward, plant trees, shrubs, and tall grasses; natives in your environment so easy care, and non-toxic. Love the yard sale sheets, and old quilts will also work. Mary
 
I bought shade cloth on Ebay last summer. It comes in various sizes and densities. I got 70% density. It made a huge difference in the summer heat. It lets water through if it rains and is very tough. UV resistant. They supply plastic grommets, you can cut it to length and put the grommets where you need them. I use little bungees to hold it in place. The piece I got was 10' X 15' and cost $29. I cut it in pieces to fit the south and west sides of the run. It often gets VERY windy here, for example yesterday we had gusts to 45 mph, and this shade cloth (part of which I have left on all winter to protect from snow/ice) is still undamaged and doing its job. It doesn't seem to make any difference that it wasn't hemmed.
 
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I bought shade cloth on Ebay last summer. It comes in various sizes and densities. I got 70% density. It made a huge difference in the summer heat. It lets water through if it rains and is very tough. UV resistant. They supply plastic grommets, you can cut it to length and put the grommets where you need them. I use little bungees to hold it in place. The piece I got was 10' X 15' and cost $29. I cut it in pieces to fit the south and west sides of the run. It often gets VERY windy here, for example yesterday we had gusts to 45 mph, and this shade cloth (part of which I have left on all winter to protect from snow/ice) is still undamaged and doing its job. It doesn't seem to make any difference that it wasn't hemmed.
That is exactly the stuff I was thinking! I'm glad to know that it works. I will be looking into a couple trees to plant around the run area. Grasses are hard to keep here due to the heat and dry summer. Last summer I lost all my ornamental grasses due to heat and drought. :(
 
I've got some of that 70% shade cloth, it helps but not a ton...and we only get in the 90's here.
Best to have solid, deep shade where the sun never shines on the ground so they can dig in and get cooled off.
 
Speaking of trees and plants for shade, I really wanted something that would grow big, fast, to shade the west side below the shade cloth but couldn't think of what would be suitable or cheap. I didnt want to buy plants that might not survive. Then I noticed some weeds growing in the run's fence...pigweed and lambsquarter. I allowed these weeds to do their thing. What a perfect solution! They turned into bushes 5' high! The entire west side had shade down to the ground. The girls enjoyed hunkering down under their " hedge." By around 4 PM, shade from trees took over. We made it thru a very hot summer, thankfully.
 

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