2 Hoop coop cattle panel questions

[affacat]

Our 3rd building has been done for awhile, except for painting.

It's for Narragansett Turkeys. I originally planned on building them a 8x12 coop but upon further research it seems they like sheds.

This was effectively just building our alpaca shed again except one wall is metal fencing and we greatly improved our roofing (I will never work with corrugated again, this is metal roofing with a much easier to install profile)

We are keeping them in their shed/run for a bit longer to ensure we don't lose them to neighboring yards when we start freeranging.

My back is to the chicken coop that terminates this run. We also got an old sawhorse from habitat and put a fresh 2x6 on top as a secondary roost in the run. (This is before turkeys moved in, they are now happy residents)

Used doors from habitat are cheap and easier than building. That close wall is fencing as we read turkeys like to be able to see out easy.

Unlike our chicken run we encased these hoops in metal fencing (see some near shed here, unfinished at time at photo) because unlike our chickens the shed is open at night and we didn't want racoons getting into the hoops. So we skirted with hardware then cut fencing into 10 ft pieces (4 ft wide) and covered it.

There is a roost in there some use but we need to lower it.

Left alpaca shed, far left coop, far right is turkey shed. 4th building next up, and hoop runs will connect turkey to 4th and 4th to alpaca (where I'm standing, basically).

We have a spigot connected to our well in the center of the garden for easier water management.

If anyone is thinking about doing any of this the first major thing I'd say is preplan how you want to enter everything (garden, runs, etc).

 

[3KillerBs]

(I will never work with corrugated again, this is metal roofing with a much easier to install profile)

We were stunned at how easy metal roof is to work with and install.

 

[affacat]

We were stunned at how easy metal roof is to work with and install.

Yeah. I loved it. I absolutely hated the corrugated... Had to deal with those terrible wavy boards, nothing wanted to line up, nothing was flat.

This roofing profile was absolute cake comparatively. Though I didn't chalk lines so my screws are a bit all over the place. No one will ever notice but me tho.

I'll try to take current pics.

Oh, regarding gardening, my wife really wanted to try this - if you look at the pics, that's like 6 inches of wood chips to suppress weeds and then customized hugelkulture beds - we laid out lots of branches (they rot and fertilize over time) under dirt.

The wood chips don't really do a good job weed suppressing at all. We're probably going to need to lay something over the paths to kill the massive amount of weeds. At least chipping and spreading all those woodchips was good exercise I guess...

 

[NatJ]

The wood chips don't really do a good job weed suppressing at all. We're probably going to need to lay something over the paths to kill the massive amount of weeds. At least chipping and spreading all those woodchips was good exercise I guess...

I've found that a good thick layer of paper or cardboard will keep weeds down for a while (a few months to a year or more, depending on how thick it was, and what climate.) Wood chips over the top are a good way to keep the paper or cardboard from blowing around.

When I say a "thick" layer, I'm thinking anywhere from 6 to 20+ sheets of newspaper, typing paper, packing paper, and similar. Cardboard I've only done 1-2 layers thick, and that rotted through much faster than the multi-layers of paper, so more layers would probably help there too.

I think part of the difference is that weeds can push through between the wood chips, but a solid layer of paper doesn't leave any spot for them to go through.

 

[affacat]

I live in Oregon... we had ice and wind this year, but generally no real weather issues other than a long rainy season.

I was avoiding going into detail about my 'master plan' because I didn't want to accidentally derail the thread, but the reason my run is going to be so large is because it is theoretically stage 1 of a huge chicken moat.

Long term (as in, I might give the first run a year to test it out.)

1: build coop with a 30 foot run or so (exact size based on not having to cut materials).

2: build another run off coop going at 90' angle (coop becomes corner)

3: eventually finish the other side of the square with 2 more runs. (Runs touch at inner corner, leaving a 7x7 or 8x8) empty square to fill...

4: use those 4 corners for... 1 or 2 coops (depending on whether I want separate flocks), an entrance, a storage shed (with smaller chicken tunnel allowing access around).

(It will be constructed near a well, and would have a well outlet inside the garden area.)

Actually, might as well sketch it... attaching sketch.

This came to me in a fever dream while struggling with the cost of chicken moats. Doing it piecemeal, and not needing to frame the run vertically are huge benefits.

Wow. Someone liked this post today that has my original brainstorming sketches and it brought back the feels.

Taken today:

Chickens freeranging, alpaca hanging out in their shed, turkeys in the back.

One more building to go! But I have my kids fort to build first and I need to stop slacking on it

 

[aart]

WOW that's a lot of livestock panel run
How do you get inside the runs?

 

[Lilbitsnpieces]

I have built a tractor shed out of cattle panels. The full 16 ft ARCHED....I actually placed mine ON TOP OF 40"pallets...it is 20ft or more ....I didn't overlap..just zip tied together...I also didnt frame..mainly because I'm only 4'9 and didn't have any help building it..I placed a large(20x30) Tarp on mine. And after several inches of snow fell it collapsed in the middle...If you are only using hardware cloth and setting panels on ground and only using a couple you might not have too..however a heavy coon could also collapse it as mine around here are upwards of 40-50 pounds...I ended up framing the front only, then put pillars in the middle where yypanels meet each other..of course this was AFTER much "under the breath" mumbling about how dumb I was.. as I tried for days to push it back up...I want to run a small beam , maybe just some 2x3s , down the center to alleviate the pillars..but so far have not done so...as a side note..I cut out the pieces on ends of panels so they were not squared but "spikes"? Then drilled holes in pallets and slipped spiked ends in them and bent over..also no vinyl coated panels ..they are galvanized so even IF you tried to coat them it wouldn't stick....unless you "etched" with vinegar at which point your defeating the purpose of the galvanization...is that even a word

 

[Krugerrand]

I have built a tractor shed out of cattle panels. The full 16 ft ARCHED....I actually placed mine ON TOP OF 40"pallets...it is 20ft or more ....I didn't overlap..just zip tied together...I also didnt frame..mainly because I'm only 4'9 and didn't have any help building it..I placed a large(20x30) Tarp on mine. And after several inches of snow fell it collapsed in the middle...If you are only using hardware cloth and setting panels on ground and only using a couple you might not have too..however a heavy coon could also collapse it as mine around here are upwards of 40-50 pounds...I ended up framing the front only, then put pillars in the middle where panels meet each other..of course this was AFTER much "under the breath" mumbling about how dumb I was.. as I tried for days to push it back up...I want to run a small beam , maybe just some 2x3s , down the center to alleviate the pillars..but so far have not done so...

The key really seems to be keeping the horizonal force in check. I would expect that gets much more difficult if the panels are suspended above ground. "Locked" to the ground, they're pretty tough to move.

 

[affacat]

WOW that's a lot of livestock panel run
How do you get inside the runs?

The turkey run is easy, there is a door in the side of it:

This building also has a second door on the other side that will go into the future rabbit run.

For the chicken run you need to go through a door in the back of the alpaca shed. I would have done this differently if I had thought about it because it's on the low side of the shed so you have to duck. We decided to put the chicken coop entrance on the garden side for easy mucking into the garden compost but I probably would have put that door on the outside if I did it again and then put a second door directly into the chicken run.

See the door? Works great if I duck under the low point of the rafters. It's fine for kids and wife tho.

But all of the hoops are tall enough for easy walking once you're in, its only the low side of the alpaca shed that's a potential headbanger.

Overall though there are very few design changes I'd make since you learn pretty quick what works, so the turkey shed, for example, makes life easy.

 

[affacat]

The alpaca love looking through the back windows (chicken wired, or maybe hardware clothed can't remember). into the run. Their shed is the hang out spot. Which is great, I feared they wouldn't use it but every animal we have does except for our cats.