Love, love love my hoop run! Cheap, easy to build (hubby and I were in our mid 60s and both of us have some disabilities, but we whipped that hoop together in a weekend all by ourselves), size is easily expandable if needed, and I think it’s very attractive.
Unlike most people, we built ours with NO supports except around the people door. We simply pounded steel fence posts into the ground, arched the cattle panels between them so the force of the tension in them was against the posts, and wired them to the posts. We covered the top with chicken wire to exclude wild birds and squirrels, then put a hardware cloth skirt about 2 feet up at the bottom, folded it outward, and that gave us a 2 foot apron to deter digging predators.
This thing stands up to everything Wild Wyoming Weather can throw at it...snow loads and our usual high winds (40 mph average, with winds up to 70 mph and one January gust of 90) and it doesn’t budge! We built it in 2014 and have never had to make a single repair to it. In winter we use a clear, mesh reinforced plastic over it (think greenhouse) and in summer shade is provided by landscape fabric. We have it on there in sections, so we can roll each section up or down like window shades.
Summer…
Spring, but showing the plastic over the run. Took this as we prepared to remove the plastic for the summer....
This is why we wait so long to remove the plastic....a late May snowstorm!
Winter…
Unlike most people, we built ours with NO supports except around the people door. We simply pounded steel fence posts into the ground, arched the cattle panels between them so the force of the tension in them was against the posts, and wired them to the posts. We covered the top with chicken wire to exclude wild birds and squirrels, then put a hardware cloth skirt about 2 feet up at the bottom, folded it outward, and that gave us a 2 foot apron to deter digging predators.
This thing stands up to everything Wild Wyoming Weather can throw at it...snow loads and our usual high winds (40 mph average, with winds up to 70 mph and one January gust of 90) and it doesn’t budge! We built it in 2014 and have never had to make a single repair to it. In winter we use a clear, mesh reinforced plastic over it (think greenhouse) and in summer shade is provided by landscape fabric. We have it on there in sections, so we can roll each section up or down like window shades.
Summer…
Spring, but showing the plastic over the run. Took this as we prepared to remove the plastic for the summer....
This is why we wait so long to remove the plastic....a late May snowstorm!
Winter…
