Hoop Coop Ideas?/

[piper123]

I am looking to build a hoop coop for under $100. It does not have to be large, it only has to hold three silkies and a frizzle. I am just wondering if anyone has pictures or plans of a hoop coop. It doesn't have to be portable either and we have very mild winters in Florida but REALLY hot summers. It really doesn't need to have the coop part, it just needs to be a run that we can put a tarp over. Is this a good idea?

 

[dheltzel]

I'm pretty sure this one was under $100, as long as your labor is free. It is 8 x 12, for your breeds, you would want to lower the roosts inside. It's completely covered with 2x4 welded wire, including a 2 ft "skirt" on the outside to deter digging predators. I put 1/2" hardware cloth around the bottom 2 ft to keep coons from reaching in. The 3 ribs are each 2 pieces of 3/4" grey plastic conduit.

For your chickens you could reduce the size (and therefore costs), but this would give them a lot of room to play.

 

[piper123]

I like that one How tall is it? Can you walk in? Also, I know predators can't reach in and grab chickens, but can they tear through the large mesh on the top? We have a real problem with the predators around hear and had to really think about that when we built our last coop.

 

[dheltzel]

I like that one How tall is it? Can you walk in? Also, I know predators can't reach in and grab chickens, but can they tear through the large mesh on the top? We have a real problem with the predators around hear and had to really think about that when we built our last coop.

It's about 6 ft tall in the center. That's with 20 ft of conduit and wire across the 12 ft length. I ran some calculations with online tools to compute elliptic curves, but in the end, I found out if you add the width (12') and the height (6') and add 2', you get the length the pipe needs to be. So if you only wanted 8 ft, then 16 ft of pipe would do, which is the length of a "cattle panel" that is used in the 8 x 8 hoop coops.

I believe that 2x4 welded wire is structurally stronger than hardware cloth because the wires are thicker. I can't imagine anything but a bear getting through this wire without wire cutters.

 

[piper123]

Thank you for the information this was all very helpful!