hello all been here lots just not signing in just reading.and studying have over 2 acres here,but none is fenced and our street is busy and houses sets close to road, dogs loose, lots of hawks etc I bought about 10 cattle panels over 50 T posts... last year for either fencing or hoop houses... got a hoop house started but its by the way side till chicken tractor(fred fine fowl design) and regular size 4 by 7 coop with aluminum topper roof... finished.... the winter cold and snow has stalled all.... So anxious to get at least one coop finished. Tired out using the two TSC" Hen house coops "kept in a " shelter up" . Bought 6 chickens last Saturday at Flea Mkt. Dumb thing to do since coops were not finished yet. Hubby is under the weather with flu.I should have bought 5 baby chicks instead, (LOL) that would have given me time to finish coops before they were ready to be in coops.... Well the deed is done.. so.. Was going to buy a Heavy Duty dog pen from TSC for $239... but thought ...naw.. Since I wasted over $500 on TSC Hen houses and one extension pen , What a waste of money such junk should have cost like half of that. ..... now onto question thinking about running cattle panel horizontally,.... yeah I know they are only 50 inches tall. so pen could be 16 by 16 feet....I got like 8 used chain link gates, 3 different heights(LOL) Yes, I know I need a top. so thinking about using Either tall thin wall conduit or...used Heavy duty yellow plastic gas line(another CL purchase)to heighten the 50 inches with poultry wire top, reinforced.. (saving all my hardware cloth for securing to cattle panels sides to cover the big openings of the cattle panels...and separate chicken tractor and gardening stuff.) and other fencing etc for predator proofing the ground.... and keeping out our outdoor,handsome,neutered, adopted Nov 2013, stray cat , who loves to stalk.... I keep tell Kitty he is a " Guard Cat"........ and if he want to be with us, he better just watch chickens, not try to jump them....Need to keep a water gun in my apron pocket(LOL) Has any one used cattle panels in such a way??? No ..not for hoops?? 50 inches is plenty tall for a pen but not for us humans to clean etc thanks all? Sorry for such a long post...... Jean
I used thin wall conduit, t-posts and 2x4 welded wire for my run. More details on My Coop page, link under avatar.
