No but that sounds like a good idea, especially if you don't have snow storms in your area. Are you planning on using it on the sides as well? I'm not sure I'd want my view of the birds blocked, at least from the house :)

-Sheila

I was thinking on the outside that is not facing my house. I would want to be able to see the "girls" in their pen from the yard etc. I just wondered if that would be a problem with cutting out the flow of air around them or if they would get enough coming through the top of the pen. I looked at several chicken pens and only one had lattice on the sides of it. It really did make it look fancy though.

We just finished building a chicken coop. It is surrounded by welded fence on all sides, including the top. We plan on rolling out reed fence over some of the top for shade.

We have a koi pond that is shaded by two layers of reed fencing. We built a wooden frame and rolled the fencing onto it. It works great and looks nice. It also prevents birds from seeing the fish from above and we've never had any birds get our fish (that is a big problem in this area).

One reason not to use it along the sides is that it will block cooling breezes. It would provide shade stretched on the top of the pen, and could provide some shade along the west side, but I think, unless the wind is relentless and stirs up a lot of dust, I would want the breezes to blow through the pen. If you have neighbors' dogs, etc., that seem to be taking an interest in your hens, then that's a different matter.