Covered Chicken Run: Panels, Mesh or Open

A covered chicken run is a run with a roof over the whole top, and it is the one part of a run that every extension source in our files asks for in the same words: keep the birds of prey out. What the sources do not tell you is what to roof it with, how steep, on what framing, or what it costs. This guide answers those with the numbers our designer uses, from the panel maker’s own tables and the default 8x8 run for six hens, priced at named stores on Oct 8, 2026.

There are three choices in the designer: corrugated polycarbonate panels (our default), a hardware cloth roof, or an open top. Each one passes or fails different checks.

Why the run needs a roof at all

Walls and an apron deal with everything that walks, digs or climbs. They do nothing about a hawk by day or an owl at night, which simply drops in from above.

What the extension services ask for

The sources agree here more than anywhere else in run design:

NC State’s wording matters for the choice below: wire or solid are both acceptable to it, so the decision between them is about your weather and your budget, not about predators.

Netting is not in our designer

Penn State, Virginia Tech and Oregon State all accept netting over the top. Our designer does not offer it: netting carries no snow, and we hold the top to the same standard as the walls. Utah State warns that chicken wire is not a barrier to predators, and a soft net is lighter still, so the lightest roof we draw is 1/2 in hardware cloth.

The run walls still do the main work

A roof closes the top, not the base. Every covered run in our plans still has 1/2 in hardware cloth walls fixed outside the posts, the side NC State asks for, and a 24 in apron at the ground. A roof on a weak wall only moves the problem.

Three ways to roof a covered chicken run

Here are the three roofs side by side on the same 8x8 run beside a raised 4x8 coop, designed for a roof snow load of 30 psf, our default. The run cost is what the run adds to the 4x8 coop plan, at shelf prices we read on Oct 8, 2026, before tax and delivery.

Polycarbonate panels, our default

Five corrugated polycarbonate panels, 26 in x 10 ft, on three 2x6 purlins, falling 12 in away from the coop. The panels shed rain and snow away from the coop wall. It is the only option of the three that is green on every check up to 50 psf.

Hardware cloth over the top

Two 48 in bands of the same 1/2 in hardware cloth as the walls, laid across the run, with a single 2x4 joist under the joint between them. It keeps hawks and owls out and costs $382.07 less on this run, but it carries no snow and keeps no rain off the ground.

Open top

No roof framing at all, and the run posts stand 72 in all round. The designer turns the run roof check amber with the note that an open run lets hawks and owls in. It is the cheapest run, and it is only cheaper than mesh by $58.43 here.

Slope and panels: building the chicken run roof

A chicken run roof in polycarbonate is simple to frame, but the panels have rules of their own. All of them come from Palram, the maker of the Suntuf panels our list prices.

At least 1-1/2 in of fall per foot

Palram’s Suntuf installation guide gives 1-1/2 in in 12 as the minimum recommended slope, and asks for extra sealing below it. Its US data sheet adds that slopes under 10 percent are not recommended. Our roof uses exactly 1-1/2 in per foot, which is 12.5 percent. Over the 8 ft run that is 12 in of fall: the framing stands 84 in at the coop end and 72 in at the far end, with the middle posts at 78 in.

Panel size, laps and how many you buy

The panels are 26 in wide in the Greca 76 profile, sold in 8, 10 and 12 ft lengths. Lapped one corrugation at each side, every panel covers about 23 in, so five cover the 8 ft width. The roof slope is about 96-3/4 in long and the panels overhang the ends, so 8 ft panels fall short and the list calls for 10 ft. Where a run is longer than one panel, the courses lap 6 in at the ends, inside the 4 to 8 in the maker asks for.

Screws, closure strips and sealant

Fix the panels with 2 in screws with EPDM washers on the crown of every other rib, through holes pre-drilled at 1/4 in, as the installation guide shows. On the 8x8 run that is about 100 screws. Foam closure strips shaped to the profile close the corrugations at the coop end and the far end, six strips of 36 in in all, and a tube of polycarbonate-safe silicone seals the laps. Lay the panels label side up.

Purlins and snow load

The panels need support at regular spacing, and the purlins under them need to be big enough for the snow. Our designer sizes both for the roof snow load you pick, from 20 to 80 psf. Ask your building department for the figure where you build.

The maker’s load table

Palram’s guide publishes one table for the panels themselves: how much load they carry for a given distance between supports.

The same guide sets 36 in as the maximum spacing and recommends 24 in for most installations. So our designer puts purlins 24 in apart up to 40 psf, and 16 in apart at 50 psf.

Purlin size by run width

The purlins span the width of the run. The designer sizes them with the same Spruce-Pine-Fir No. 2 span math it uses for the coop rafters, adding 5 psf of dead load and limiting deflection to L/180. These are the sizes it picks:

Two things in that table look odd and are not. A 10 ft run at 50 psf takes a smaller purlin than at 40 psf, because the closer 16 in spacing gives each purlin less roof to carry. And the 8 ft run in the example uses 2x6 at the default 30 psf because a 2x4 at 24 in spans about 85 in at that load, short of the 93 in it needs.

Above 50 psf

The maker’s table stops at 50 psf on 16 in supports. At 60 psf and above, the designer still sizes the purlins but turns the panel check amber, with the advice to use a metal roof designed for the load or to ask the panel maker. On the 8x8 run, moving from 30 to 50 psf adds two purlins and takes the run from $988.18 to $1,033.68; dropping to 20 psf lets 2x4 purlins do the job and brings it to $961.85.

When a mesh roof is the right call

A hardware cloth roof is not a lesser covered chicken run. Where snow is light, it is a sound choice that saves money and keeps the same predators out.

Amber up to 30 psf, red above

The designer’s rule for a mesh roof is ours, not an extension figure: amber at a roof snow load of 30 psf or less, with the note to brush the snow off after every storm, and red above 30 psf, because a mesh roof loaded with snow can pull the run down. At 40 psf on the example run, the check reads red and suggests the covered roof or a removable winter cover.

Framing a mesh roof

A mesh roof has no fall, so all the posts are the same height. The hardware cloth comes in 24, 36 and 48 in widths, and the roof is laid in bands across the run, each joint landing on a joist. Our joist sizes for a mesh roof go by span: 2x4 up to an 8 ft run, 2x6 up to 12 ft and 2x8 beyond.

What it saves, and what it does not

On the 8x8 run the mesh roof saves $382.07 against panels. Most of that is the panel roof’s own list: the five panels at $41.54 each, $207.70 at Home Depot’s Hamilton Mill store, plus screws, closure strips, sealant, the 2x6 purlins and their hangers, and taller posts at the coop end. The walls change too: with no fall they stand 72 in all round, so the upper band of wall mesh is 24 in wide instead of 36 in.

Height, door and the coop end under a roof

A roof sets the height of everything under it, so think about how you will get in before the purlins go up.

A run you can walk into

NC State asks for a run you can enter standing upright and gives no number. Our default is framing 72 in tall at the low end. With the panels’ fall, the 8x8 run is 84 in at the coop end, and its 30 in door at the far end clears 64-1/2 in, so you duck a little under the door head. Inside, the clear height under each purlin is the framing height less the purlin’s depth.

Under the eave on a walk-in coop

On our walk-in coops, the run can tuck under the coop’s eave instead of having its own posts on that side. Then the roof’s high edge sits on a ledger fixed to the coop wall, and the run cannot be taller than the top of that wall. A run built that way still falls 1-1/2 in per foot, so a long run loses height at its far end.

The gap at the coop end

A run with its own roof stands clear of the coop: in our plans, 1 in past the coop’s 6 in eave overhang, so 7 in off the wall. A short hardware cloth chute closes that gap around the ramp on all four sides, and the run’s coop end is a full mesh wall with a framed pass-through at the pop door.

Choose your roof in the designer

The right covered chicken run depends on your snow load, your hawks and your budget, and the designer shows all three at once.

Try the roof options on your own run

Open the 4x8 example in the coop designer at 40 psf and switch the run roof between panels, mesh and open. The snow check, the panel check and the price move together. For the rest of the build, posts, rails, mesh and apron in order, follow how to build a chicken run, and for the roof on the coop itself, see our chicken coop roof guide.

Start from a drawn plan

The chicken run plans show covered runs drawn for six coop sizes, each with its materials list. When your design passes every check, the builder’s plan for it is $29, with the purlin layout, the panel count and laps, the screw count and the cut length of every post under the slope. For keeping out what comes from the ground, see the predator proof coop guide.