What's a good Canopy or top for Chicken Run???

[Flycropper]

AK,

I may try this. I have a couple of questions:

What would prevent the pvc from sagging in the middle?

Is there a heavy (thick) grade of pvc that would span 14 feet and not dip or bow in the middle?

Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Quote:
This is what I currently have and after a while it sags in the middle and water/snow puddles up!

 

[AK-Bird-brain]

Quote:
If you take a 20' peice of pvc pipe stick it in a 2x4 on one end you would have to bend it to get it into the other side creating a low arch. repeat this every 2' (give or take) down the length of the run. stretch some chicken wire over the arch and secure the wire to the pipe.

I'm not sure about any pvc that would go accross without sagging, even 4" would sag a bit at that distance.

 

[Slackdaddy]

The bird netting for fruit trees works great.
We lost 1 rooster to a hawk when the run had no top.
Stapled the netting to the coop, streched it over to the top of the 6' run fence, and sewed it as needed with 60# fishing line, about a month ago a Hawk was sitting on the ground about 1' from the fence, just watching the chickens. He could not figure out how to get at them

Slack

 

[talos321]

We used plastic netting which was only 4ft wide so we use clear zip ties to combine it together. Also you can tighten it up from time to time by pulling to the next loop and zipping down.

 

[morelcabin]

I too use simple bird netting and stretch it over the top tight then staple. We have hawks, eagles and large crows here. None of them try it because they would just get all tangled. It only costs about $8 and covers my entire 12x10 yard with more to spare. THis is my second year with the same one, left it on over the winter and just shook it off this spring to get the branches and pine needles off it.
I used chicken wire at one point but it was so hard to keep branches and twigs off.

 

[Flycropper]

To the Netting Folks,

Well that is an option that I had previously taken off of the table. I read a post on here when I first joined where a person had a hawk rip through the bird netting and get one of her chickens. Is the bird netting pretty strong? Do you think a hawk could blow through it?

I'm going to get some today and may double it over my run and try that.