Very large flat hardware mesh roof

[Molpet]

I went with cattle panel Hoop covered with HWC and a tarp,
I'm n IL between Joliet and New Lenox.

 

[aart]

Totally flat

It needs to have some slope to shed water, if you have any kind of tarp or solid roofing.

Snow won't readily fall through hardware cloth, especially if you get any wet snow

Ditto Dat!
Even my 2x4 mesh can hold snow....auxiliary run collapsed under 16" of snow cause I couldn't get at it to clear.

 

[Imataken]

Our run is 20 by 30ft what we did was made a sloped roof so snow and rain would fall off. It was challenging since our run is so large. My husband made the left part of the run posts I think 10ft tall the right side posts are 7ft tall with beams going across to hold the metal roofing. We then attached hardware cloth from the top down going 2 ft out to make a skirt which we covered with small stones then dirt then woodchips. We have gutters all around leading some of the water to a drainage ditch the rest goes into rain barrels. We're in nj and get periods of heavy rain often so keeping all that rain out of the run was a task since we already live in a area with a high water table my yard sometimes floods. We always keep a very thick layer of 6 to 8 inches of woodchips in the run and toss couple bags of horse stall pellets over it everytime it rains. So far everything has been great