Comments on my plans for a modified hoop run please

socks

Songster
10 Years
Apr 12, 2009
201
1
119
Pacific Northwest
Hi, there, got the little chickies
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, got the large second hand rabbit hutch (needing some amendments) and now for the run.

I am very interested in the hoop style runs mainly because....well, because my husband and I are kind of right angle challenged.
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(thank goodness we don't have many mosquitoes because the screen door he 'built' has gaps a hummingbird could sneak through) And I just know I wouldn't be any better. He has made some hoop and gothic shaped greenhouses though so the hoop run seems a natural.

What we need: a more or less fixed run that has some covering so that there is a dry area and shade for the hutch. This has to be able to hold some snow (and if the farmer's almanac is right, more than we have had in the Pacific Northwest in the past years) but I am willing to go out and sweep it off the way I have to do with my greenhouse and certain tall bushes.


So the plan: I've read about the cattle panel model but we don't have cattle panels available on our island, we have 20ft rebar and hardware cloth. So I am wondering if we can do it using those two ingredients and use the framing wood (or maybe not even, for example pounding pipes into the ground and inserting the rebar) (did I mention that money IS an object?
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)

I am wondering 1. If this will have the strength to hold itself up (imagining that we just stretch some tarp over it for the 'covered' section). We can add some support posts in the middle if that would be a good idea. 2. I am also wondering what size hardware cloth I can get away with i.e. the 1" stuff is seriously pricey ( I am hoping for a generous run about 13ft. by 13 ft or longer as the coop would be inside) and a friend has suggested I could use 2" stucco cloth but he also mentioned that mink have been increasing in the area and I've been reading that they might be able to go through a 1 1/2" space.

My original plan was to use the 2 inch stucco cloth and add something small to the bottom 3ft. of the run.


About raccoons and the rest of predatorville, I was hoping I wouldn't have to bury the hardware cloth but that I could do fold down (and pinned down) sides, i.e. a section all around ....that was in case we thought we would like to move it ....

I have searched the forum for this but have only seen pictures and discussions of pvc ones (which we know from experience doesn't do well with the snow) and the cattle panels but hope someone has some experience with the rebar or something similar.

Your comments and ideas about practicality for snow load and mink imperviousness are awaited
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Thanks for the continued thoughts... this is causing me to think and discuss with my husband and we are now leaning towards the coop being out of the run and attached by a tunnel....that might bring A-frames back into the picture although crawling on my knees in that fabulous um...fertilizer to catch a cornered hen will probably not be as fun as it sounds
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Rafter 7... as it happens I do know of the system your husband described (and would love to have it in our greenhouse) but I am hoping to make the run very secure and unless I've missed something in the description I am thinking the critters would have a fine time slicing through that plastic.

I would like to see what you did with old trampoline frames...or do you mean just using the frame as is (2ft. high or so) as once again, the crawling through the muck thing, this case commando style
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.

I don't know if I am misrepresenting our snow. We normally don't get a lot, maybe three falls a winter (except last winter when we all lost count along with our pvc hoop greenhouses). But because it is the west coast it can be heavy......

About the mink, is 2" square too big??? I've seen a pet ferret once (actually it was in a friends car I borrowed, she forgot to mention it was in it....imagine my surprise when a snake with a fur coat lifted its head as I grabbed the gearshift
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).
 
I made a hoop house out of PVC pipe and rabbit fence.
I used 10 foot sticks of 1/2 inch PVC pipe. Glue a T on each end of the pipe. Use a short 18 inch piece of PVC pipe between the T's. Keep adding on untill it's as long as you want. Make a frame 5 feet wide and however long you went with. I used 10 foot for ease of construction you just get 3 10 foot 2x4's cut one in half for ends of the frame. Nail it togother and you have a 50 square foot run area.
Next use pipe hangers to attach one side of your PVC frame to the wood frame. Here comes the hard part, bend the PVC frame so the loose side meets up with the other side of the wood frame and attach with more pipe hangers.
Cover the pipe frame with wire. I used 2x4 welded wire made for keeping rabbit out of gardens. It's a nice stiff gauge wire that helped add some rigdity to the structure.
For ends I cut a couple inches off of another 10 PVC pipe and glued 90's on the ends, then take another pipe a few inches short of 5 feet and glue into the 90's. You should end up with a D shape. Cover it with wire. Place at the ends of your frame and attach with more pipe hangers to the wood frame. These are you doors they flip down to access the inside of the hoop house. Just tie it at the top to secure closed.
Mine is covered with a tarp and so far has held a foot of snow.
 
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5 by 10 hoop house about 4 feet tall at the center. Smaller tarp in the summer to allow for ventilation. Over the winter we use a larger tarp to reach the ground on both sides. The wire fencing is attached to the pipe frame with electrical zip ties to hold the pipes straight and in place.
Small insulated dog house to the left provides a warm sleeping/ nesting area.

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You can't quite see the pipe hanger in the photo. all they are is a U shape with tabs on the sides to put your screws through

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Door slightly open so you can see how it pivots open.

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10 by 20 hoop house about 6 1/2 feet tall in the center. Just finished this one last weekend so it hasn't survived a winter snow load yet. 2x4's bracing the PVC pipe just in case. used 1 1/2 inch pipe for additional strength.
 
I'm sure someone that knows something about these kind of runs will respond soon. I'm also angle challenged but DH is a great builder. Good luck with the chickens.
 
hardware cloth will be to lite for what you want. you can mail order panels be they might be pricey. bending rebar also might be a problem, I've used 4x8 sheets of lattice work, stronger than you think, easy to work with and will hold a tarp up great. and can be peiced together well
 
Are you sure you want to go with the hoop, without having the cattle panels I can't think of a way to make it strong enough. What about using the a frame design? It is very strong and you don't use as much in the way of materials. May be tough to make it the size you want though. Worst case can you just build a standard type fence by sinking posts about every 8' and connecting with a 2x4 top and bottom then putting on the hardware cloth. Fences are easy to build.
 
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Thanks for the input, the A-frame design I think would be a problem with encasing my coop which is about 8ft long and 6 ft wide and opens at the top. and my concern with the fence thing is that the covered roof would need to be something other than flat otherwise it would collapse (which gets us into our lack of building skills problem).

hardware cloth will be to lite for what you want. you can mail order panels be they might be pricey. bending rebar also might be a problem, I've used 4x8 sheets of lattice work, stronger than you think, easy to work with and will hold a tarp up great. and can be peiced together well

Buck Creek what do you mean by lattice, you mean that thin lathe type stuff that is used as a kind of decorative fencing (made of strips of cedar)?

I guess I do have to look into how easy rebar is to bend (not to mention get to my place) but I believe I have seen Eliot Colemen the gardener mention it as a possibility for a hoop greenhouse....hmmmm..... I don't know if I could get the local building supply to bring in cattle panels, is there another name for them as they didn't seem to know what I was talking about?​
 

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