Moment of silence. And how do I keep this from happening

[AndrewP07]

So I went out early this morning to give them all a dose of valbazen, and I saw that their hoop coop had some snow on it making it tilt. I got most of it off and forgot about it. Went back a couple hours later, and it had collapsed. 1 confirmed dead, but 2 more in bad shape.

 

[aart]

That looks like some wire other than cattle panels to me.

What gauge is the wire?

You know, I think you're onto something.....could just be 14ga 2x4 field fencing.

 

[aart]

How side is the base?
Needs some framing to help hold it up and in shape.
Might get some ideas here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/aarts-hoop-coop-chicken-tractor.72211/
..and there are a lot of other hoop coops in the coop article section.
Putting 'hoop coop' in your thread title here will garner more advice.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Not sure what gauge, but they are 16 foot panels.

That surprises me it collapsed.
What kind of bottom framing is there?

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

What gauge is the panel? I had to use ratchet straps to bend 16 ft panel into a hoop in order to secure it to the frame. The way your panel is pinched is odd. Heavy snow in the little amount you have should not have permanently bent cattle panel like that.

 

[21hens-incharge]

The only supports on this one were the 2x6 base frame external to the panels and the door frame. The side on the building was held on with tiny clips made from plumbers strap and secured with very short screws to the siding.
It saw several 3' snows before I got tired of shoveling paths to get into the run.

 

[McChooky]

Here I found one https://www.handymath.com/cgi-bin/arc18.cgi?submit=Entry

Enter the length of your hoop material or the width of your row cover as "Length" and either the width of the bed or height of the desired hoop and it tells you how high the arc will be or how wide a bed you can cover for a given height hoop.

 

[AndrewP07]

How side is the base?
Needs some framing to help hold it up and in shape.
Might get some ideas here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/aarts-hoop-coop-chicken-tractor.72211/
..and there are a lot of other hoop coops in the coop article section.
Putting 'hoop coop' in your thread title here will garner more advice.

What do you mean how side is the base?

 

[Cinnamon Roll]

Probably meant how wide is the base.

You could put in 4 t posts and use a rope inside the hoop from one post to another to hold the panel in place without unwrapping your tarp.

 

[GirlsHuntToo]

Maybe some really strong support beams might help.