Cheap roof for chicken run

[Fluffyflufffluff]

Hello, im hoping someone has an idea.. a CHEAP idea.. lol

I have chicken wire over the top of my chickens run to keep them safe from hawks. Over the summer I had a tarp over the wire to help keep it dry. Well that kept pooling up so we'd have to get under it and dump the water.. it finally busted and now with this weird warm streak (not complaining i promise lol) that we're having in CT. The chickens run is MUDDY. Which leads to mud all over the eggs from their feet. During the summer with the tarp, it HELPED a lot.

I thought about making a roof with plywood but after figuring out how many plywood sheets and 2x4's it turns out to be more than I can afford right now because i dont want to just put it flat over the top, i want it pitched so it drains off. I mean ifffff i REALLY have to, i can buy the stuff but it would hurt us a lotttt right now financially (i work seasonally and am laid off until spring) So im looking for other options.

I looked into what i thought would be cheap corrugated roof panels, either plastic or metal. Ugh wasnt cheap at all.

Looked into actual covers for a dog kennel that has the rounded supports to help water flow off (thats what their run is, a 10x10 dog kennel) but i think in a short matter of time that would bust too just like the tarp we used.

I dont know if anyone had experience with those party tents.. but if that would work just as a cover im sure i can find one used on CL or FB. I just dont know how strong it would be for snow/ice/wind. Id obviously knock off what i could to take the weight off but i just dont know if it would be worth the expense of a lousy 30-50 bucks. Because if it didnt hold up until my work season starts then it would be a complete waste of money.

Does anyone have any other ideas? Do they make strong enough tarps to hold all that weight of snow/ice? Again i would knock off what i could when in out there but i cant be out there 24/7 doing that.

Please any advice would be great. Thought about getting free pallets but id need soooooo many, would take a lot of work to take them apart and i have no way of hauling that many. My car would fit maybe 2 at a time lol so pallets are definitely out. I would run into the same issue if i used plywood but at least home depot is less than a mile from me so more than a couple trips there wouldnt be bad.

Help lol

For me, The best but yet cheap. Plastic roof. It offers light in daylight. heat is just fine... easy to clean... and you can cut it in shape easy..

 

[DuckDuckSook]

You can look @ the whole album.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/fgKYkhxNAXBnH6B36

At the very end is a 10x10 dog pen. 2 cattle panels @ $22/each, 1 medium weight tarp on sale @ Lowe's 2/$15. You can see the 16' panels come down on each side quite a bit for support. Since this is our dog pen, we didn't put wire on the inside of the panels, like I now do for the birds. At least 2x4" wire, maybe HC, if needed for predator protection. If on the bottom of the panels, the tarp easier to slide on.

We get rain, hurricanes, some snow, lots of ice. Panels hooped on other chicken pens & actual hooped coops have done great. We'll see how this holds up.

The various chicken coops show how I put wire on... the 1st 2 permanent ones in the BY coops, didn't have wire on. When tarps shredded in hurricane force winds, the birds able to get out. Putting wire up from underneath, a real PITA!! But finished earlier this year.

Thank you so much for posting this and including the link of photos. This is exactly what I was thinking of adding to our dog kennel chicken run and I'm so glad to see it in action! Can't wait to give it a try this spring!