Cattle panel

[GardenNut]

@Blooie I much prefer unscientific! Dropping rocks to mark your post locations sounds like something I'd do! Lol! I live alone, am headed towards "old geezer," and usually am doing things alone. It may take me longer to complete my projects, but if I can find a way, I often get them done as good as "scientific!" Being stubborn helps!

 

[Trefoil]

Love this thread

 

[Beekissed]

Why didn't I know about this thread....CPs are the basis of my homesteading life. Them and zip ties, of course.

My first CP shelter build was a winter shelter for a few sheeples....that thing was amazing! Put it up in less than an hour, took it down in even less time come spring. We had winds of 50-75 mph that winter and that thing didn't budge, nor did the tarp on it.






That same winter I used a CP to arrange a self feeding station for the sheep so I wouldn't have to lift heavy hay bales all winter and so there would be less hay waste...it worked beautifully!! Large bungee cords kept the CP tight to the face of the hay stack and all I had to do was remove strings as they ate into the bales and move hay downward to sheep height at times. The only waste I had was right in front of the feeder and that went towards bedding, was kept dry due to the overhang.





I guess you could say that winter was the start of my love affair with CPs and zip ties and now I find them essential anywhere I live. At my current residence I had to build a coop, so decided on a modified hoop coop, very minimal at first. Took me 10 days to build and that wasn't even 10 full days. I'm still using that coop but have tweaked it quite a bit to suit my needs.



Finding it too hard to winterize in its current state without creating too much humidity, I decided to tweak it with some free scrap lumber, some I already had, other from a 50 yr collection of packing crates that was given to me.

Then came the major coop tweak that took me much longer than it did to build the actual coop!



Built in both ends, put the nest boxes in the front with outside access, roosting in the back,added another hoop on the back, added a centerbeam for support of the roof, built a doghouse on the back, and added a clear tarp in the winter months, changing out for a shade tarp in the summer. THAT was an incredible change for this hoop coop and allowed me to hit the sweet spot for coop life for my flock...warm and sunny in the winter, cool in the summer, hugely adjustable ventilation in all seasons.





This year I tweaked again...removing all the wood off the sides in that back hoop and those windows too, so that I could get maximum airflow to the roosts at night in this hot, hot summer we had. I also changed the way the center support position, widening it out to allow for more room to manage the DL under the roosts.



I also tweaked it two more times this fall, getting a larger clear tarp so that I could take the sunlight all the way back to the roosts and also lifting the front of the coop a good foot or so to level it out(it sits on a slight slope)and give me more head room so I can build my litter as deep as I want.





The pic below is mid tweak, with the front jacked and supports placed under. Since then I've built a stoop on the front and put some "underpinning" across the front. The new height is just perfect! I think I'm done....maybe....



I can't say enough about how easy it is to change hoop coops, add on and take away, adjust ventilation, change the light quality, manage DL, add more roosts or take them away, etc.

I love my little hoop coop...you don't know what I got!

(For you younger generation, that was a Beach Boy's reference. )




I also am currently using CP to create rings around my apple trees so I can keep my compost in one place, without the chickens scattering it. I planted taters in there this past spring...they didn't do too badly. The apple trees were attacked and stripped by Jap beetles but the taters did fine.







Also using CPs to create extra wood storage next to my wood shed....can't find any pics of that, but used two hoops for that one. Used CPs to create my garden gates and the trellis over my garden gate.

Then I use CPs for tomato, beans and cuke trellising....the tomatoes are so easy, you just weave them back and forth in the fencing squares as they grow and you don't need any support at all.



And this fall I took down those trellises and arranged a hoop structure covered with a tarp so I could store bags of fall leaves and our lawnmower out of the weather....they will be put back up in the spring for trellising once again. CP is just that versatile.

GREAT thread, LG!!!!

 

[lazy gardener]

Nice photos and CP applications guys. Keep that inspiration coming.

 

[Blooie]

She sneaked this one right past me, too, Bee!:/

 

[lazy gardener]

Love you two!!!!

 

[Beekissed]

Here's a really cool CP greenhouse build: https://www.peakprosperity.com/wsidblog/81753/building-cattle-panel-pallet-greenhouse

 

[GardenNut]

Gosh that's nice Bee!

 

[lazy gardener]

Awesome build. Makes me want to build again, but I've run out of room. As it is, my MIL looks out my back door and either shakes her head or laughs. She doesn't understand!

 

[Beekissed]

Kind of makes me want to redo my coop with those pallets at the bottom like they did....perfect for DL! What a perfect little hoop greenhouse, huh?