Transitioning from roofed to roofless run

[K0k0shka]

Many years ago I had a coop that we would move around with our tractor. I had a temporary fenced run that was also moveable. The county came up and wanted to include the coop as a building on the property. We told him it was a chicken coop and we moved it around, we are very rural on a dead end road. It took quite a bit of convincing but eventually he agreed. He could plainly see there were chickens in it. Originally it was a brooder coop but we eventually moved it out to where the outer coops are. The coop was on skids. There were wheels attached to the run.
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Good idea if you have the space. I'm in the 'burbs and my yard isn't that big... Also, the coop and run are wedged in a corner behind a raised garden bed, so they can't really move much.

 

[K0k0shka]

All I can say is I wish you and your chickens the best. I am so grateful for the neighbors I have, which is why our starter home became our retirement home. We have lived here on 1/2 acre since 1987. Even though we are allowed chickens, we checked with our bordering neighbors beforehand. Almost 1/2 of the people have lived here about as long as us. Our neighbor closest to the coop run grew up here and then bought the house from his mom. When neighbors have moved they introduced the new owners to the neighborhood. We have a large vegetable garden and share our produce with our neighbors. Before COVID we used to have a garlic roasting party in the fall. I can't imagine living to the nightmare that is your neighbor. I know I am blessed.

Thanks! You are indeed lucky - neighbors can totally make or break your living experience in a place.

 

[K0k0shka]

We use a hoop house for meat birds, it works very well. However, it's not predator proof from digging animals at all. We use it short term, three months at most, and drag it around the lawn next to our house, and near the fenced dog yard. As permanent housing, critters would figure it out.
Mary

I don't have the room to drag a coop around... My yard isn't big enough, and there are things in the way.

 

[K0k0shka]

Don't know if this has already been asked, but what about a carport canopy or one of those portable canopy tents?

It won't work, unfortunately. Nothing that looks and acts like a roof

 

[BDutch]

I don't have the room to drag a coop around... My yard isn't big enough, and there are things in the way.

Not even for a second patch? If you make 2 openings in the coop or a ‘a trunk that the chickens can walk through’ and make a movable ‘hoop’ run? Like change it from south to east and back again?

 

[K0k0shka]

Not even for a second patch? If you make 2 openings in the coop or a ‘a trunk that the chickens can walk through’ and make a movable ‘hoop’ run? Like change it from south to east and back again?

The coop is in a corner, and has a fence on one side of the corner and a tall stone wall on the other side (there's some distance between the coop and either boundary, because those are the property lines and that's the rule about property lines). Then on the 3rd side I have a large raised garden bed that blocks me from moving anything anywhere... Even if the garden wasn't there though, and even if my coop was tractor style and movable (which it currently isn't anyway), I don't want to move it. Whatever open space I have in the yard is used by the kids to play in. It's complicated Right now there's room for everybody - chickens, garden and kids - if everything stays where it is, so I'm really hoping not to have to move anything.

 

[cmom]

Good luck to you and your neighbors. I have also used umbrellas in the past. We are on top of a hill so sometimes it gets pretty windy and the wind has damaged them somewhat.

 

[cmom]

I was in a similar situation when we were much younger and working. We lived in a burb. We tried a carport and the city made us take it down because of a complaint by someone. We had a camper parked in our backyard and had to get rid of it too because of a complaint. We applied for variances. They were denied and they kept the application fees. (nonrefundable).

 

[writerskramp]

My 7-month-old picnic fly has just surrendered to a hail storm -- lots of little slits all over the degraded fabric. (I should be able to put a tarp over the frame when I need it again).

When you replace your umbrellas you might look into commercial restraurant supply houses to get something intended to be out in all weather for years.

Personally used a pond cover used to keep out geese in the great white north.. Just a net.. Bought secondhand at a garage sale for $10.. It was huge! It is stout.. Too stout. So stout it will gather leaves and wet snow till it snaps off your wooden posts.. Going with something lighter and with more spacing.. Just need to keep the buggers in.. Keeping out the hawks and eagles.. Anything can get in if so they desire.. Deal with it as required.. Traps to trapshooting.. Squirrels get a little feed, mice scurry about till a chicken snack. Chipmunks, who would have thought eat eggs.. Racoons.. they'll snap the neck of everyone.. Hope not, but if you see one. Que de grass it ASAP.. Fox, coyote to bear shouldn't be able to get in through welded wire.. but bears are strong. Bent my wire in.. Dogs a plus.. Deal with it all.. and padlock your pen.. Keeps out the two legged varmints too.. Been there, chicken thief is not a misnomer.

 

[K0k0shka]

Good luck to you and your neighbors. I have also used umbrellas in the past. We are on top of a hill so sometimes it gets pretty windy and the wind has damaged them somewhat.

Thanks! Mine are wedged inside the run frame and can't be knocked down by wind, so wind is not an issue. My problem is that the fabric isn't completely taut between the ribs and when it rains, rain pools on top and causes the fabric to sag, which stretches it and it sags even more, and more, until it weighs the whole thing down and starts bending the ribs with its weight. I have to periodically go out there and push the fabric back up to dump the water out. Which is fine if I'm there to do it, but if it rains overnight or I can't get out often enough, I end up with deep pockets of water that weigh everything down and bend the ribs. So it's a pain in the butt, but the least risky solution to my problem...