TWEAK MY COOP~Tweaks on the Cheap

[aart]

Quote: Thanks.

 

[joannefiddler]

I was standing looking at an empty 50lb Purina feed bag and thought of this thread...what clever uses have you all come up with for them? They are so sturdy and apparently water resistant, I hate to just throw them away.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I was standing looking at an empty 50lb Purina feed bag and thought of this thread...what clever uses have you all come up with for them? They are so sturdy and apparently water resistant, I hate to just throw them away.

Tote Bags

Nest Box Curtains (they eventually shed a thin layer of plastic, so this isn't my favorite use for them, but it worked in a pinch)

Broody Box covers and privacy screens (I'm talking where hens brood eggs ... I put the big broody boxes on the floor of the coop, and other birds like to stand on top of them and poo ...)

There is a business near me that recycles all kinds of odd plastics into oil, so our feed store has a big bin out by the loading dock where you can drop stuff like feed bags and lots, lots, lots of other things ... check the recyclers in your area to see if there is anything like that there.

http://www.agriplasinc.com/

 

[aart]

I was standing looking at an empty 50lb Purina feed bag and thought of this thread...what clever uses have you all come up with for them? They are so sturdy and apparently water resistant, I hate to just throw them away.

I use them for bags...lol..really, store used litter in them to pass along to others.

Have used them for shade curtains in the coop windows, put them up along the bottom of hardware cloth coop walls to contained kicked bedding, sewed a few together to make a large bag to hold a broken bale of straw.

A buddy of mine cuts/sews strips and weaves them into baskets, he also made some aprons out of them for his kids art classes:

 

[Beekissed]

I was standing looking at an empty 50lb Purina feed bag and thought of this thread...what clever uses have you all come up with for them? They are so sturdy and apparently water resistant, I hate to just throw them away.

I always keep some on hand for multiple reasons.......mine are just plain white plastic sacks....tack up over ventilation places so the wind doesn't blow directly inside, tack over the dog house entrance to keep out the rain, cut them up one side and use on small hoops for winter greens crops, put them down under a watering bowl/tub to prevent the ground from getting churned and muddy there, line nest boxes to make for easy clean outs, place over 5 gal. buckets that do not have a lid...they fit right over, hang on the side of the coop/shed/barn to hold baling twine until you need it, use as a killing cone, use for transporting birds, for trash bags for kitchen trash cans, for placing under an oil pan in case you spill as you are draining or moving it from underneath the mower or car, to hold kindling wood, tack on the wall beside the nest boxes so you can store flakes of hay in them~ cut a hole in one corner for easy dispensing of the hay for refreshing nest boxes, and last, but not least, for holding other feed bags until you need them.

 

[Parrotrancher]

I pick up plastic dog carriers at yard sales. I remove the front door, and fill it with bedding, and the girls just love them.... If I get a broody hen I just pick up the whole carrier, move it to a small pen I have to hatch and raise chicks, and everyone is happy. I move them at night, and have never had a problem with the hen leaving the eggs.

 

[Windy Bay Farm]

Well...got out my new clear tarp, which isn't really clear as it has white fibers woven into and sealed into the plastic layers...and added more grommets. I had read the reviews on this tarp before buying it and folks only complaint was that it didn't have enough grommets, so I also purchased a grommet kit. On the long sides of the tarp I put a grommet every foot and on the short sides it has them every 2 ft. as those sides aren't as essential when it comes to fastening down for the winter. Let me tell you this...this tarp is one tough piece of work! Talk about heavy duty! A lot of the reviews were from Hawaii and those folks have some serious sun, winds and rain and the tarp was lasting them for up to 3 yrs and beyond, so it just may last me much longer as my coop is in partial shade and sun for most of the day. And it was the same price as a cheapy tarp from Ollies of the same size, so I'm pretty pleased so far...it's not a woven tarp like the cheapies, but a solid, heavy sheet of plastic with white fibers sealed into and woven through it. Here's a pic of one just like it....

Bee, where did you find these tarps ? I need something strong to cover my run and with the winds we get around here it needs to be able to hold up.

 

[Beekissed]

I got mine from Amazon. I'm pretty impressed with the structure of the tarp but not so much with how many grommets it had so I added quite a bit more to it. Can't wait to see how it wears in our weather. In the summer months it will have another tarp(silver) layered over it for shade purposes, so that will protect it from most of the sun damage it might get over the years.

 

[Windy Bay Farm]

I got mine from Amazon.  I'm pretty impressed with the structure of the tarp but not so much with how many grommets it had so I added quite a bit more to it.  Can't wait to see how it wears in our weather.  In the summer months it will have another tarp(silver) layered over it for shade purposes, so that will protect it from most of the sun damage it might get over the years. 

Thanks for the info, Bee. I've been looking for a good tarp for some time now so I may look into this and with the wind around these parts I'll definitely require extra grommets.

 

[Beekissed]

I've got an old cargo net I'm going to use over mine during the winter months and that should help keep it flat to the hoops pretty well. I used it on a similar hoop structure one winter for the sheep and we had 50 mph winds that winter and that tarp didn't budge an inch. I think the trick to keeping tarps healthy in the weather is to stretch them tightly, fasten them well, don't let them flap in the wind.

In the summer it will have another, dark tarp, over it and that will protect it from the sun damage. Hoping to get the most life out of this tarp that I can.

Soon I'll be starting my coop and extra pen tweaks and will be posting pics of the progress as I go along. I'm hoping you all will do the same so we can borrow ideas from one another if need be.