Safety Up Grade For Chicken Run.

Safety Up Grade For Chicken Run. As some of you know last fall over a 4-6 week period I lost almost all my chickens to predictors. The loss coincided with the Red Tail Hawk migration all though I believe there were more players involved. After I started missing birds I confined them to the run area, but the losses did not stop, In fact they increased. By me concentrating them into an open top run it apparently made them easy pickings.

I knew before the new chickens could be released into the run I needed to up grade my security above as well as the bottom edges of the pen. So I started at the bottom by placing pieces of broken brick and block against the chain-link fence. No, it is not pretty but it is functional and that is what my goal is. Next I knew I had to defend against birds of prey. That I believed was the main cause of my loss. The reason being is most chicken were just gone, a few feathers and no bird. Raptors will take their kill with them, if they are small enough and light enough. Some of the losses occurred at night and I believe owls were nabbing birds that had roosted out side the coop. My neglect of the run contributed to the situation, by me letting limbs grow over the pen, I unwittingly provided cover and a perch for the hunters, easy prey!

So in running through the options for a top cover I looked for a light mesh option that did not block light or air. I found it in a polypropylene bird netting on Amozon in just the size I needed 20x40. Here is the link, and they do have different sizes, https://a.co/d/g4znVsQ
This netting was easy to work with, meat all my requirements, and was with in by very tight budget.

I stretched the bird netting across my 16x40 run, trimmed the excess and now they are much safer in their run area.
God Bless.

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