Transitioning from roofed to roofless run

[K0k0shka]

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.

Wow. At least I don't have bears, dogs and thieving humans to deal with!

 

[3KillerBs]

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.

My picnic fly isn't to keep anything in or out (though it's handy on rainy days), it's for shade since the Little Monitor Coop is in a temporary position that's exposed to the worst of our brutal midday sun.

 

[Malkaris]

This would obviously never work in your situation but when I saw this today I immediately thought of you and was like too bad this couldn't be put over part of the run to protect it from the rain. Put some plants out of reach on higher shelves and tell the officers at their inevitable visit - my idiot neighbour is complaining about my flowers in a portable greenhouse now!!

I'm considering buying a greenhouse for the frame, using the roof, and attaching hardware cloth to the sides with some DIY venting at the top because we've been having some wild weather - cold, crazy rain/snow etc. I just don't know if it would hold up well enough to be good for any length of time (they're hundreds of dollars) even if I cleared the roof as often as possible, especially with all the wind. I envision it becoming a giant parachute... I want the hens to be able to get outside daily if possible, and also not bothered by neighbours' pets. Renovations next door = styrofoam chunks and junk in my yard. :/ Hope the actual neighbours are better.

 

[K0k0shka]

This would obviously never work in your situation but when I saw this today I immediately thought of you and was like too bad this couldn't be put over part of the run to protect it from the rain. Put some plants out of reach on higher shelves and tell the officers at their inevitable visit - my idiot neighbour is complaining about my flowers in a portable greenhouse now!!

View attachment 2592698

I'm considering buying a greenhouse for the frame, using the roof, and attaching hardware cloth to the sides with some DIY venting at the top because we've been having some wild weather - cold, crazy rain/snow etc. I just don't know if it would hold up well enough to be good for any length of time (they're hundreds of dollars) even if I cleared the roof as often as possible, especially with all the wind. I envision it becoming a giant parachute... I want the hens to be able to get outside daily if possible, and also not bothered by neighbours' pets. Renovations next door = styrofoam chunks and junk in my yard. :/ Hope the actual neighbours are better.

I don’t think I can have a greenhouse in that spot either, if it’s covered over the top...

Does the greenhouse you’re looking to get come with a roof? A slanted polycarbonate roof or something? If it does, and the roof isn’t meant to come off after the growing season ends, then I’m guessing it must be built sturdy enough to withstand snow. The sides acting as sails aside, I’d worry more about the roof. If it wasn’t meant as an all-weather roof, I wouldn’t trust it in the winter without some heavy reinforcements. I made that mistake last year. Bought a large greenhouse frame for my garden and wrapped it in chicken wire to keep the birds and rabbits out. I didn’t even put plastic over it, just the chicken wire, thinking the snow would fall through the holes... Ha ha ha. First decent snowfall and the frame was bent to sh**, almost down to the ground!!! I can only imagine if it had plastic over it as well. I’ll need to disassemble it now and build custom supports to hold it up for next winter. Or for this summer, for that matter - I can’t stand up under it right now, it’s so bent and crushed down

 

[Malkaris]

I don’t think I can have a greenhouse in that spot either, if it’s covered over the top...

Does the greenhouse you’re looking to get come with a roof? A slanted polycarbonate roof or something? If it does, and the roof isn’t meant to come off after the growing season ends, then I’m guessing it must be built sturdy enough to withstand snow. The sides acting as sails aside, I’d worry more about the roof. If it wasn’t meant as an all-weather roof, I wouldn’t trust it in the winter without some heavy reinforcements. I made that mistake last year. Bought a large greenhouse frame for my garden and wrapped it in chicken wire to keep the birds and rabbits out. I didn’t even put plastic over it, just the chicken wire, thinking the snow would fall through the holes... Ha ha ha. First decent snowfall and the frame was bent to sh**, almost down to the ground!!! I can only imagine if it had plastic over it as well. I’ll need to disassemble it now and build custom supports to hold it up for next winter. Or for this summer, for that matter - I can’t stand up under it right now, it’s so bent and crushed down

Booooo!!!!! Yes, snow sticks and then accumulates! It would be incredible if it wasn't so annoying. The roof for the greenhouse I want looks like a flexible plastic roof to me. My thinking was that if the roof was peaked or curved the snow and rain should just slide off. But I somehow doubt that would work out for me either. It would probably stick, make a dip, and then in no time have a ton of weight on it! There's a tarp over my run at the moment and the water pools, then leaks out... and also a certain cat has been getting up there and digging her claws into it. But she's part of the anti-weasel squad so...

I would love to know why your neighbour is obsessed with seeing the ground in your yard. Reading about this has shown me some character flaws I really need to work on though...

 

[K0k0shka]

My thinking was that if the roof was peaked or curved the snow and rain should just slide off. But I somehow doubt that would work out for me either.

Don’t count on it... Snow can find a way to stick even on very steep slants, especially wet snow. I was thinking I’d go out periodically and knock it off the garden during snow storms. We don’t get a lot of storms anymore, and now I’m working from home and here all day. That was all fine until we got a surprise storm overnight... Woke up to the garden already crushed

There's a tarp over my run at the moment and the water pools, then leaks out

That happens with my umbrellas, too.

I would love to know why your neighbour is obsessed with seeing the ground in your yard. Reading about this has shown me some character flaws I really need to work on though...

I think he’s just incredibly salty that my yard is about 10x the size of his, and thinks I should compensate by allocating part of my yard as green scenery for him to look at. He said about as much - wants to look out his window and have a nice view In a packed suburb. The view out MY window is another neighbor’s trash cans, but I don’t send the town after her to put them somewhere else... This is a trend. Newcomers complaining about what’s already there when they move in. Ugh.

 

[writerskramp]

My picnic fly isn't to keep anything in or out (though it's handy on rainy days), it's for shade since the Little Monitor Coop is in a temporary position that's exposed to the worst of our brutal midday sun.

Just the opposite here.. Too many mature trees and North side of large two story.. They like some sun and that is what they get, some... prefer roasted chicken in the oven not the sun.. and it ain't summer yet. Seems like I've even used an umbrella when the sun is straight up before to shade the waterer.. may even build it's own little shelter if ever I find that round tuit...

 

[countryladyNH]

This would obviously never work in your situation but when I saw this today I immediately thought of you and was like too bad this couldn't be put over part of the run to protect it from the rain. Put some plants out of reach on higher shelves and tell the officers at their inevitable visit - my idiot neighbour is complaining about my flowers in a portable greenhouse now!!

View attachment 2592698

I'm considering buying a greenhouse for the frame, using the roof, and attaching hardware cloth to the sides with some DIY venting at the top because we've been having some wild weather - cold, crazy rain/snow etc. I just don't know if it would hold up well enough to be good for any length of time (they're hundreds of dollars) even if I cleared the roof as often as possible, especially with all the wind. I envision it becoming a giant parachute... I want the hens to be able to get outside daily if possible, and also not bothered by neighbours' pets. Renovations next door = styrofoam chunks and junk in my yard. :/ Hope the actual neighbours are better.

What a cute thing!!

 

[chicken1234]

I don't understand how it is counted as a extra building because of the roof. If its attached to the coop and the coop is allowed I would have thought that it would count as one building. If so could you close the entire thing in again with large windows and just pop the windows out? Are you allowed portable runs with a roof? Maybe you could add a basic frame on the bottom and add wheels? Or put a portable run or tractor and attach a removeable "tunnel" to it?

 

[K0k0shka]

I don't understand how it is counted as a extra building because of the roof. If its attached to the coop and the coop is allowed I would have thought that it would count as one building. If so could you close the entire thing in again with large windows and just pop the windows out? Are you allowed portable runs with a roof? Maybe you could add a basic frame on the bottom and add wheels? Or put a portable run or tractor and attach a removeable "tunnel" to it?

Nothing with a roof of any kind can exist within 8 feet of the property line