What are some ways to cover my coops?

[Zahboo]

I am working with limited budget, a large hawk population and bantams. The pens are chainlink and the sizes are 10x8 and 10x6. The cochin pen is 10 feet wide by 8 feet deep. The Silkie pen is 10 feed deep and 6 feet long. I don't want it to look riggidy, as we are cleaning up our yard. Ignore the vinyl underpenning behind the pen, that's a trash pile

I use dog houses as their actual coops in the run. In the picture the dog house was in seperate peices for the cochins because the rooster is over eager and it's hard for him to breed them since the top is lower.

I don't like the look of the trampoline. Even though the coops are behind the house I can see it and the neighbors can too. I was thinking corrugated plastic or something... They make it in 12 foot x 3 foot peices. I could do part with that and part with wire?

Here is the cochin. They threw down my flower and the wooden things on the side is the aviary pen supports for the pigeon loft. That will be removed this week.

And the silkie pen

 

[jeni51]

I have just covered my run with the Tuftex brand of corrugated plastic. Reasonable price, but needs support every 24 inches.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Are you locking them up at night or is this to keep other critters out too?

 

[Zahboo]

Quote:
We have a dog out there that guards them and we've never had predators get in with deer netting on the top. We can lock them up at night, we just don't

 

[elmo]

Do you want shade and rain cover, too? If so, then those plastic panels work well, although you do want to intall them on an incline, not flat, so that rain will run off. For best shade, but still allow some light, the white panels are good.

If you only care about keeping out the hawks, a cheaper alternative would probably be game bird netting.