Building A Hoop Coop first! a Pallet Coop next!

[MonsterClucker]

hoop house looks great .. i would  place at least 2 strands of  electric fence wire around the perimater near  the bottom  to keep skunks weasles  dogs cats etc  away though ..

Thanks for the tip. I have a Doberman guard dog who just lays in front of the coop all day for now. I do want to get some electric fence soon just haven't had that In the budget currently. That stuff is pretty expensive right?
I did double up and overlap the fencing real well on the corners and there are fencing staples all along where the fencing meets the wooItIts definitely not the best lol but it should do for now.

I'm really excited to get the pallet coop done. The birds are 20 days old today. So we've gotta get on it.

I ordered 25 more meaties today and 15 buff Brahma chicks so more than likely um gonna build 2 more hoop coops. So look out for that too guys. I have about aw acre fenced in area that I really wanted to build my coops on originally, so this is gonna be a perfect opportunity to start on that. I'll take pictures of the land when I get back from TSC.

 

[Avedderflock]

Right on looking forward to them pics. We have 2 acres here that I plan to range them on when our pooch is ready. I say yay for the dogs and give them a job to do as they thrive on doing work for us. Right now Im looking for training methods for our pooch ( shepherd/rotti cross) She is so happy to be the chicken dog Those hoop houses are great! They would never stand up to our wind here but its a great concept for sure. Thanks for sharing

 

[chicken pickin]

Wow more birds on the way

yay. I love all the babies. Make sure to keep posting all the pics and the new coops too.
And let us know how your meaties do in the hoop coop. Im doing the tractor for this year but maybe in the spring if it sems as though the hoop houses are easier I may build one for the next batch.

 

[MonsterClucker]

Right on looking forward to them pics.  We have 2 acres here that I plan to range them on when our pooch is ready.  I say yay for the dogs and give them a job to do as they thrive on doing work for us. Right now Im looking for training methods for our pooch ( shepherd/rotti cross)  She is so happy to be the chicken dog  Those hoop houses are great!  They would never stand up to our wind here but its a great concept for sure.  Thanks for sharing

Our dogs our really special dogs. Never been raised around chickens but they do really well with them. A few times a hen flew over the fence, my AM bull dog x pit bull just watched her. He never even moved the whole time. And my Dobie sleeps outside at the fence by the hoop coop like protectikg them. I'll come outside I'm the morning and he's right there!
The hoop coops CAN be pretty sturdy if you do it right. They just have a good center of mass so they are easy to move. We get pretty strong winds out here everyday. So far so good.

Sorry about the pictures. We had a power outage yesterday evening out here and I'm just getting everything moving along again here so look out for them soon!
Enjoy the day!

 

[MonsterClucker]

Wow more birds on the way yay. I love all the babies. Make sure to keep posting all the pics and the new coops too.
And let us know how your meaties do in the hoop coop. Im doing the tractor for this year but maybe in the spring if it sems as though the hoop houses are easier I may build one for the next batch.

Yea chicken math is no joke!

I got a incubator the other day too and an egg turner. So it looks like I'm goona be hatching eggs too lol. I found out that there is a rare breed of chicken called Basque hens that come from a region in Spain my father is from so I'm trying to source some of those chicks to! I've sewn them on one hatcheries website for $19 a chick.
Pretty steep, but my dad insisted that I get some of those lol. So yea I have more hoop coops to build!
The meatiea are loving the coop and the run they have now. They are always dust bathing and chasing off the little birds that fly down! They are hilarious! With their big breqts just swinging everywhere when they run around lol. It's crqzy how food driven they are. I'm excited to get this first batch bagged and in the freezer. I'm anxious to see how fresh home grown chicken taste compared to store bought chicken.

I like the hoop coops a lot. But if I could raise meat birds anyway I'd rather do it in a tractor mo ing to fresh pasture everyday. But this works good for now.

 

[MamaBear46]

love the hoop coop so much! I am trying to convince hubby that is the way to go !

 

[MonsterClucker]

Got some more work done on the pallet coop this morning. Put up the rest of the walls. So now I just have to do the roof and the door and the structure will be complete. Then on to the little stuff (roosts,nestboxes....) Fun stuff! Front wall and side human door entrance. Back wall... This is where I want to build a little covered run with access from the coop, since I have a hawk flying over I need to have something for them to run and hide in. So that will go here So that's it for today it was already 90F when I finished. It gonna be around 104F today! So tell me what you think. Ideas? I want to put sand and a poop shelf under the roosts. I want roosts high, like 6 feet high with chicken ladders to get up to em. Automatic nipple waterers throughout all my coops and runs, I'm just brainstorming....

 

[timothylee]

building a coop out of pallets is a very cost effective and efficient thing to do so great idea and keep it coming

 

[chicken pickin]

That is looking GREAT so far. You got a lot done today in this heat. That coop is going to be so big im jealous. I want to add more chickens to my flock but have have no room in the chicken coop to expand right now. The poop boards are a great thing to have so much easier to pull ut out and dump it and refresh the shavings or sand. Where are the windows going to be and have you decided on how the roof is going to be done yet?

 

[JoshU]

Got some more work done on the pallet coop this morning. Put up the rest of the walls. So now I just have to do the roof and the door and the structure will be complete. Then on to the little stuff (roosts,nestboxes....) Fun stuff!
Front wall and side human door entrance.

Back wall... This is where I want to build a little covered run with access from the coop, since I have a hawk flying over I need to have something for them to run and hide in. So that will go here

So that's it for today it was already 90F when I finished. It gonna be around 104F today! So tell me what you think. Ideas?
I want to put sand and a poop shelf under the roosts. I want roosts high, like 6 feet high with chicken ladders to get up to em.
Automatic nipple waterers throughout all my coops and runs, I'm just brainstorming....

For protection from winged predators, you can always use fruit tree bird netting over the top of your run. It is much cheaper than metal netting and is very effective. You will have to replace it about once a year but you can find it for less than 10 bucks for a size big enough to completely cover a full grown fruit tree. Depending on the size of your run, you could prolly divide it into a couple years worth.