Feedback on hoop coop design, please

[U_Stormcrow]

Does anyone have experience with putting the cattle panel on top of a short wall?

I stopped my though experiment at that point. You would need either external bracing to the top of the short wall, likely some triangle-like structure transferring those forces to ground, or a way to tension the inside via braces or cables which ran side to side at the top of the short wall. If you did a raised coop at one end, that would shorten your effective wall length for bracing concerns, reducing loads. You could then run triangular braces from the sides of the door to the tops of the walls, again, shortening the effective wall length (and maybe use for storage, etc), but whatever you do, you start building weight fast - and as hoop coops are popular for chicken tractors, well, you are engineering yourself right out of its intended use. Steel wire in tension would work, but now you can't walk thru it...

I imagined myself into a dead end.

 

[3KillerBs]

I helped someone design a guinea hoop.... way tall!
Had Tpost on the sides...can't find the thread link tho, will look more later.
Here's the drawing tho.
View attachment 2508226

I wouldn't need anything hugely tall, just tall enough that the help doesn't need to walk slouched over.

 

[EmmaDonovan]

Yes. I wanted the head room.
Did your friend use catenary...more of an egg shape?

Catenary. Like 3KillerBs' helper, I'm over 6' tall. I'm not a teen, however - I'm middle aged and can't move around stooped over, too many neck and back injuries over the years.

lklik made an 8x8 coop using the same 50"x16' cattle panels and it looks like the interior height on hers is about 6'6".

No matter what type of coop we build, the interior height has to be at least 6'3" (I have this same problem trying to find non-toxic camping tents ). We wanted it higher than that in the coop for ventilation, especially during the summer, which is about six months long here.

We switched to this model because our previous coop designs were mostly lumber and proved to be too expensive to build with the cost of lumber right now. We're open to other design ideas, too.

 

[mowin]

My hoop is 8' wide. I put the bottom of the hoop in the middle of a 2x6. I'm 5'10", and have no height clearance issues.
If you're looking to add more height, build two frames out of 2x8 and stack them. That should give you enough height.
Looking at my pic, I think my base might be 2x8's

 

[aart]

Catenary. Like 3KillerBs' helper, I'm over 6' tall.

Well, you'll just have to see. I highly recommend that you get a panel and play with it before building, checking height and width measurements. It taught me a lot.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

^^^ Sometimes, no replacement for "DOING".

Sadly, the local farm store probably wont let you bend one up in their parking lot. Too bad, with all the people keeping chickens now, they might sell more cattle panels (albeit at the cost of selling fewer overpriced wooden shoeboxes as "chicken coops")

 

[aart]

^^^ Sometimes, no replacement for "DOING".

Exactly!

Early in my drafting/design career I had a machinist tell me...
"Just because you can draw it, doesn't mean it can be made".
That guy taught me a lot.

 

[3KillerBs]

Exactly!

Early in my drafting/design career I had a machinist tell me...
"Just because you can draw it, doesn't mean it can be made".
That guy taught me a lot.

Indeed.

I had that issue sometimes with the factory sewing. Sometimes we'd get the makings of a sample with a diagram and had to say, "This can't work." (The main issue being that designers working with lines on paper would forget that fabric has thickness and failing to include a "turn of cloth" allowance).

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Once in early drafting as well. "This can't exist - looks fine on paper though". Unfortunately, it was one of the piping diagrams to move liquid oxygen or liquid nitrogen to Shuttle Launchpad 39b (I forget which, we did multiple parts of both that weekend). Made for a long weekend - 40 hours between Friday 1pm and when we finally knocked off Sunday.

 

[Winter Creek Coop]

Catenary. Like 3KillerBs' helper, I'm over 6' tall. I'm not a teen, however - I'm middle aged and can't move around stooped over, too many neck and back injuries over the years.

lklik made an 8x8 coop using the same 50"x16' cattle panels and it looks like the interior height on hers is about 6'6".

No matter what type of coop we build, the interior height has to be at least 6'3" (I have this same problem trying to find non-toxic camping tents ). We wanted it higher than that in the coop for ventilation, especially during the summer, which is about six months long here.

We switched to this model because our previous coop designs were mostly lumber and proved to be too expensive to build with the cost of lumber right now. We're open to other design ideas, too.

I have a friend in the panhandle who made short side walls by attaching three stacked railroad ties(i know they are toxic but the same concept could be used with ither wood). Then he anchored panels to the ties. This was for a homemade greenhouse. It has been there for years now.

Speaking if greenhouses, Delta Canopy makes some really nice hoop house style greenhouse kits for really reasonable prices. The plastic skin is good for 3-5 years. You can also order full size shade cloths for summer. I think my 20x10 with a 7 foot ceiling was only $250ish. We have grown lots of plants in it but this year it will be where I house my speckled sussex.

Good luck.