Transitioning from roofed to roofless run

[Ladies-Eight]

I followed your thread while you were building your coop and run. The coop and run are beautiful and well planned. You were constantly going to the officials to make sure you could use this or that.

I remember you talking about the neighbor moving in and that you talked to them about your chickens and they were okay with them.

If it ends up you have to take down the roof, I would build tables every so many feet throughout the run. I would then build an enclosure on the top edge of the table and fill with dirt. Plant some greenery in them and cover with hardware cloth. Your chickens could then "free-range" on the greens and they would stay dry in areas under the tables.

I really kike the idea of solar panels as they cannot be denied. You could also sell your excess electricity to your electric company. At this point you are in a win win situation.

Please post any decisions that are made in this situation. I will be following this as it plays out.

 

[Lilyput]

Ask them to make an exception. Tell them the alternative is a blue tarp, and you would rather not do that.

fight, fight, fight; these politicians have gone too far!

 

[Lectrify67]

In an unfortunate turn of events, I'll have to take the roof off of my run, because the town is counting the roofed run as a "building" and applying the building zoning code to it, and, as a building, it's too close to the property line (nevermind that I asked permission to build it as such in that location and got the okay from the two town officials in charge of this... ). So, we are where we are, and I need to take the roof off. I have two questions.

First - can I replace the roof with this welded wire mesh:

View attachment 2380000

It's 2x3 inches and 16 ga. I know the spacing is too wide to stop everything, but this will only be over the top in place of a roof, and the chickens will be locked in the coop at night... I'm doing this balancing act between the town saying it can't be "covered" on top (definition of "covered" being stretchy and up to interpretation here), and my chickens being safe. Wider mesh makes it look less "covered". I know there are no clear answers, and dense HC is the best, but still... Given my situation, what do you think the risk is? I live in the suburbs and while we do have some animals, it's not teeming with wildlife.

And my second question. I'm sad to see the roof go because it kept the run dry. My chickens have never known precipitation, and probably won't be happy with the roof gone I still want to give them something overhead so they can use the yard in rainy/snowy weather, but I can't put anything on the roof. So I had this idea and bought two large patio umbrellas Nobody regulates those, so I can just put them in the run under the overhead mesh. They are square shape, so I can put one against the side of the coop flush with the wall, and give them a dry area to walk out onto when exiting the coop. And I'll put the other one in the opposite corner over their run perches, so they can have another dry area to hang out in. Patio umbrellas are meant for the outdoors so I'm hoping they'll do the job and be okay outside, though I've never had one myself and don't know how well they do in wind/rain/snow. That's where I'll appreciate your input. The run is pretty sheltered in a corner of the yard, with a 5' tall retaining wall 8 feet away on one side, and a 6' tall privacy fence on the other side of that corner (west and north respectively). For the winter, I'll put plastic (shower curtains) along the sides of the run on the south and east as well. So it will be pretty sheltered on all sides, with not a lot of wind blowing through. I'll anchor the umbrellas as well (one against the coop wall, and the other against the run wall). And I'll tilt them so they shed rain/snow better. Would that be enough? We don't get a lot of snow anymore. Every few years I'll have to take the snow blower out, the rest of the years there isn't enough to justify it.

What do you think? Again, I know there are no clear answers and part of this is accepting some risk. I just want to see what people with more experience think about this setup.

I’m sorry that you are going through so many issues. It sounds like the neighbor is more upset because you have noisy chickens rather than the enclosure but knows that all they can do is to nit-pick at what they can.

Question 1: Can the enclosure be moved away from the property line enough to meet the guidelines given?
Question 2: Are you able to put a yard shed in your yard and if so, what are those limitations?
My thoughts are, either shift the structure where it meets the parameters of the so said regulations or put up a yard shed in place of the existing coop and re-create your run off of the new coop. I personally would always have at lease 1x2 mesh covering the tops of my runs to prevent any haws or owls from coming in from above, or in my case, animals.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

1st of all, I am so sorry you have such an awful neighbor. That jackass has complained once, now that door is open & there will be more complaints unfortunately. I know, I lived near jackasses once myself. For you to get approval, then later be told to change what was previously approved, to please some jackass, is not a good sign of things to come, but it sounds like you already know that.

My pens have 1/2" x 1/2" wire mesh, hardware cloth, keeps mice out as well as predators.

I have bought Pet Gazebos for my chickens to enjoy shade, and they're movable things. I even bought shade cloth and wrapped around the sides to keep dry inside during winter but those photos are gone. They love taking their dust baths in there, I position the perch towards to front so they don't dust bathe in the poo poo. These gazebos can easily be moved for grazing, but mostly I have them set up inside their fox & hawk proof pens.

I have considered a type of fabric, I think it may be called Sunbrella, it is like your umbrella, that I can make a rolling retractable "awning" but I haven't made it yet. Since that will be removable & my Gazebos are movable, they're not permanent structures.

So anyway...my question, is there a particular reason, like a possible noise, compost heap or mess, odor or Rooster crow factor, or is this just one of those jackasses home all day looking out windows for something to bitch about? IF it's just a miserable person, nothing you can do will work. But IF there is a reason, it may be possible to reach some type of "live & let live compromise" but you will have to make effort to initiate "polite with no anger" conversation, and that may be impossible at this point. I don't know your particular jackass, I don't know if offering fresh eggs or awesome composted garden gold soil for jackass's garden would help or not.

In the mean time, is there a way to revise your pen set up? How big is your yard & coop? Is there a way to actually shift things, so that the only thing that jackass could see, would be the back nicely painted wall of a coop...and not be able to see the pen or flock at all? At my previous home, I had 6 foot stockade fence around the backyard, but I also arranged 3 large sheds like a courtyard, with their pens in front. So envision 3 sheds creating like a big U shape, openings with pens facing the middle of my backyard. If any neighbor on 3 sides did look over the fence, all they saw was the nicely painted back of a shed. I planted shrubs along the sides of sheds and partially down sides of pens, not right up against pens but close enough, so even if anyone jumped up on my fence, they still could not see what birds I had, which back then, were only Homing Pigeons, but in a neighborhood I didn't want any complaints. If you have a Rooster, obviously, that's a whole other issue lol.

Is your coop elevated or built affixed to a foundation? I've moved a few sheds using long pvc pipe, chain, the truck, a come along & few strong guys, in a couple hours. If moving or repositioning the coop is not possible, how about changing what side the pen is on? I know it means some construction remodel, but if I could build a new pen & new opening from coop into pen, out of that neighbor's view, that's what I'd do. I had a busybody jackass neighbor once, old in ill health, all she did was look out the window and find things to bitch about. I get it...old, in pain, everyone you love is dead, so when you see kids playing, young folk walking dogs or neighbor across street gardening, doing things you can't do anymore, it pisses you off, so you bitch & complain. It is what it is. Best thing we can do, is try not to give that type things to bitch about. They have nothing else to do, so try not to give them any ammo.

If you are not able to move the coop, or remodel to arrange the pen in such as way that it is not visible, no matter what you do, that jackass will still complain.

Well, I wish you the best of luck. It really sucks when you can't even enjoy what you love on your own property.

(Here are pics with a Pet Gazebo)

 

[gardeningsis]

In an unfortunate turn of events, I'll have to take the roof off of my run, because the town is counting the roofed run as a "building" and applying the building zoning code to it, and, as a building, it's too close to the property line (nevermind that I asked permission to build it as such in that location and got the okay from the two town officials in charge of this... ). So, we are where we are, and I need to take the roof off. I have two questions.

First - can I replace the roof with this welded wire mesh:

View attachment 2380000

It's 2x3 inches and 16 ga. I know the spacing is too wide to stop everything, but this will only be over the top in place of a roof, and the chickens will be locked in the coop at night... I'm doing this balancing act between the town saying it can't be "covered" on top (definition of "covered" being stretchy and up to interpretation here), and my chickens being safe. Wider mesh makes it look less "covered". I know there are no clear answers, and dense HC is the best, but still... Given my situation, what do you think the risk is? I live in the suburbs and while we do have some animals, it's not teeming with wildlife.

And my second question. I'm sad to see the roof go because it kept the run dry. My chickens have never known precipitation, and probably won't be happy with the roof gone I still want to give them something overhead so they can use the yard in rainy/snowy weather, but I can't put anything on the roof. So I had this idea and bought two large patio umbrellas Nobody regulates those, so I can just put them in the run under the overhead mesh. They are square shape, so I can put one against the side of the coop flush with the wall, and give them a dry area to walk out onto when exiting the coop. And I'll put the other one in the opposite corner over their run perches, so they can have another dry area to hang out in. Patio umbrellas are meant for the outdoors so I'm hoping they'll do the job and be okay outside, though I've never had one myself and don't know how well they do in wind/rain/snow. That's where I'll appreciate your input. The run is pretty sheltered in a corner of the yard, with a 5' tall retaining wall 8 feet away on one side, and a 6' tall privacy fence on the other side of that corner (west and north respectively). For the winter, I'll put plastic (shower curtains) along the sides of the run on the south and east as well. So it will be pretty sheltered on all sides, with not a lot of wind blowing through. I'll anchor the umbrellas as well (one against the coop wall, and the other against the run wall). And I'll tilt them so they shed rain/snow better. Would that be enough? We don't get a lot of snow anymore. Every few years I'll have to take the snow blower out, the rest of the years there isn't enough to justify it.

What do you think? Again, I know there are no clear answers and part of this is accepting some risk. I just want to see what people with more experience think about this setup.

I would pull a patio table without an umbrella into the pen with a medium size vinyl table cloth hanging part way down. My chickens love hanging out under mine.

 

[DuckyDonna]

1st of all, I am so sorry you have such an awful neighbor. That jackass has complained once, now that door is open & there will be more complaints unfortunately. I know, I lived near jackasses once myself. For you to get approval, then later be told to change what was previously approved, to please some jackass, is not a good sign of things to come, but it sounds like you already know that.

My pens have 1/2" x 1/2" wire mesh, hardware cloth, keeps mice out as well as predators.

I have bought Pet Gazebos for my chickens to enjoy shade, and they're movable things. I even bought shade cloth and wrapped around the sides to keep dry inside during winter but those photos are gone. They love taking their dust baths in there, I position the perch towards to front so they don't dust bathe in the poo poo. These gazebos can easily be moved for grazing, but mostly I have them set up inside their fox & hawk proof pens.

I have considered a type of fabric, I think it may be called Sunbrella, it is like your umbrella, that I can make a rolling retractable "awning" but I haven't made it yet. Since that will be removable & my Gazebos are movable, they're not permanent structures.

So anyway...my question, is there a particular reason, like a possible noise, compost heap or mess, odor or Rooster crow factor, or is this just one of those jackasses home all day looking out windows for something to bitch about? IF it's just a miserable person, nothing you can do will work. But IF there is a reason, it may be possible to reach some type of "live & let live compromise" but you will have to make effort to initiate "polite with no anger" conversation, and that may be impossible at this point. I don't know your particular jackass, I don't know if offering fresh eggs or awesome composted garden gold soil for jackass's garden would help or not.

In the mean time, is there a way to revise your pen set up? How big is your yard & coop? Is there a way to actually shift things, so that the only thing that jackass could see, would be the back nicely painted wall of a coop...and not be able to see the pen or flock at all? At my previous home, I had 6 foot stockade fence around the backyard, but I also arranged 3 large sheds like a courtyard, with their pens in front. So envision 3 sheds creating like a big U shape, openings with pens facing the middle of my backyard. If any neighbor on 3 sides did look over the fence, all they saw was the nicely painted back of a shed. I planted shrubs along the sides of sheds and partially down sides of pens, not right up against pens but close enough, so even if anyone jumped up on my fence, they still could not see what birds I had, which back then, were only Homing Pigeons, but in a neighborhood I didn't want any complaints. If you have a Rooster, obviously, that's a whole other issue lol.

Is your coop elevated or built affixed to a foundation? I've moved a few sheds using long pvc pipe, chain, the truck, a come along & few strong guys, in a couple hours. If moving or repositioning the coop is not possible, how about changing what side the pen is on? I know it means some construction remodel, but if I could build a new pen & new opening from coop into pen, out of that neighbor's view, that's what I'd do. I had a busybody jackass neighbor once, old in ill health, all she did was look out the window and find things to bitch about. I get it...old, in pain, everyone you love is dead, so when you see kids playing, young folk walking dogs or neighbor across street gardening, doing things you can't do anymore, it pisses you off, so you bitch & complain. It is what it is. Best thing we can do, is try not to give that type things to bitch about. They have nothing else to do, so try not to give them any ammo.

If you are not able to move the coop, or remodel to arrange the pen in such as way that it is not visible, no matter what you do, that jackass will still complain.

Well, I wish you the best of luck. It really sucks when you can't even enjoy what you love on your own property.

(Here are pics with a Pet Gazebo)

go to the OP's avatar and click on "my coop" at the bottom. They have an incredible step by step on everything they did from start to finish and it's very impressive and beautiful. I can't imagine finding fault with anything they did because it just looks so darn cute! It looks like a VERY small yard so I don't think moving is in the cards based on the pictures they posted. They did an incredible amount of work on this and paid extra attention to make it a very pretty area which is definitely is.

I really think they need to fight city hall on this one especially since they did all the right things as far as checking with the officals to see what the rules were.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Oh goodness I am not implying any fault or reason to justify jackass's complaining...I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the coop!!! But to me, a coop is a thing of beauty & a Rooster crow is music to my ears...so to someone that doesn't even like animals, I'm an oddball...you know what I am saying? I only mentioned revising because as I learned in my own jackass scenario, when you have someone who bitches and complains, sometimes you have to consider the "out of sight out of mind" scenario, that will get them focused on bitching about somebody else's place instead of yours. Just considering all options that could possibly help.

Also, planting Evergreen shrubs could help, but they take time to grow. See the "green wall" of evergreens I planted in the back of this photo...that's what the view is now between my place & a recent neighbor. These shrubs are big but there are other types, tall but skinnier.
https://southernlivingplants.com/plan-your-garden/7-tall-and-slender-shrubs-for-tight-spaces/

 

[Ruthie76]

In an unfortunate turn of events, I'll have to take the roof off of my run, because the town is counting the roofed run as a "building" and applying the building zoning code to it, and, as a building, it's too close to the property line (nevermind that I asked permission to build it as such in that location and got the okay from the two town officials in charge of this... ). So, we are where we are, and I need to take the roof off. I have two questions.

First - can I replace the roof with this welded wire mesh:

View attachment 2380000

It's 2x3 inches and 16 ga. I know the spacing is too wide to stop everything, but this will only be over the top in place of a roof, and the chickens will be locked in the coop at night... I'm doing this balancing act between the town saying it can't be "covered" on top (definition of "covered" being stretchy and up to interpretation here), and my chickens being safe. Wider mesh makes it look less "covered". I know there are no clear answers, and dense HC is the best, but still... Given my situation, what do you think the risk is? I live in the suburbs and while we do have some animals, it's not teeming with wildlife.

And my second question. I'm sad to see the roof go because it kept the run dry. My chickens have never known precipitation, and probably won't be happy with the roof gone I still want to give them something overhead so they can use the yard in rainy/snowy weather, but I can't put anything on the roof. So I had this idea and bought two large patio umbrellas Nobody regulates those, so I can just put them in the run under the overhead mesh. They are square shape, so I can put one against the side of the coop flush with the wall, and give them a dry area to walk out onto when exiting the coop. And I'll put the other one in the opposite corner over their run perches, so they can have another dry area to hang out in. Patio umbrellas are meant for the outdoors so I'm hoping they'll do the job and be okay outside, though I've never had one myself and don't know how well they do in wind/rain/snow. That's where I'll appreciate your input. The run is pretty sheltered in a corner of the yard, with a 5' tall retaining wall 8 feet away on one side, and a 6' tall privacy fence on the other side of that corner (west and north respectively). For the winter, I'll put plastic (shower curtains) along the sides of the run on the south and east as well. So it will be pretty sheltered on all sides, with not a lot of wind blowing through. I'll anchor the umbrellas as well (one against the coop wall, and the other against the run wall). And I'll tilt them so they shed rain/snow better. Would that be enough? We don't get a lot of snow anymore. Every few years I'll have to take the snow blower out, the rest of the years there isn't enough to justify it.

What do you think? Again, I know there are no clear answers and part of this is accepting some risk. I just want to see what people with more experience think about this setup.

 

[Ruthie76]

I have welded wire on my 20x20 run. It doesn’t keep out rats and squirrels but it keeps out raccoons and bobcats and coyotes and hawks. So far so good

 

[DuckyDonna]

I have welded wire on my 20x20 run. It doesn’t keep out rats and squirrels but it keeps out raccoons and bobcats and coyotes and hawks. So far so good

Me too and so far so good! My run is about 40' x 60'. It wasn't fun putting it up but it was easier, cheaper and much less bloody than trying to use HWC!