Nancy Reading wrote: You say that you wish that you had a roof on the run - is that to keep the chicken dry outside, or for another reason?
Having a semi-protected area in the run, especially in the winter, makes
chicken keeping more convenient for me. I find my
chickens hate touching the snow and if the ground is cleared they will spend time outside in the winter. We have open room under the coop itself that is sheltered but we have to stoop to tend to their
feed and
water. I have been frustrated when I forget to put the food under the coop and a rain storm comes through and turns the chicken crumble into cement clogging up the works.
I store their feed and feed accessories in two galvanized cans that are propped up off the ground with bricks. I keep burlap on the lids for both snow and chicken droppings. If eight inches of snow accumulate overnight, I just have to pull off the burlap and the can lid is clear. This doesn't work if it melts a little and refreezes overnight sticking the burlap to the galvanized lid. Then you scare the chickens with the loud clangs of trashcan lids being popped off the cans! A roof covering would eliminate that minor inconvenience.
It also would be neat to have a roof that can harvest rainwater off of. My
chicken run is near my garden plot and having convenient clean water would be super.
It just requires work, and figuring out how much roof height I can get away with without taking away sun from nearby beds.
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