Hoop Houses -Plus and Minuses

[Jake Levi]

Good morning

I am needing to build a couple new pens this spring for 30-50 birds each, and I am considering hoop houses, they seem to price out better then a stick frame house would be for each group.

Experiences here with them?

 

[ladydoc1992]

Hi there Jake!

I have 2 hoop pens and my son has 2. We both started with chickens 3 years ago, and due to increase in flock size, we have both had to add an additional pen each summer!
We started with traditional square chicken houses, but they get kinda costly to build if you need a big one.
After doing a lot of research on the web, we decided to build our 2nd pens hoop style, out of PVC and wire.
Here's the breakdown..

-Pens are 10' wide by 12' long 7' high at center of hoop roof
-lightweight and moveable if need be...hoop framework is 1" PVC pipe
-covered with 2"x4" welded wire then that's covered with tarp on top
- sides have 3' hardware cloth
-total time to construct..2 days
- total cost $300

My son has 12-15 chickens each pen
You could extend length of pen for additional $50-$75 and fit all your chickens in it comfortably.
We love our hoop pens WAY better than square chicken house..so much so that we both built another one each this past spring.

My son uses his as moveable pens, but I have mine on permanent site, using deep litter method. So convenient and healthy for chickens.

 

[Moogie]

One more thing...when you wire the hardware cloth to the cattle panels, be sure you have the wire "tails" on the inside of the hoop coop. Otherwise, when you drag the tarp across the panels, the wire ends will either poke through the tarp (creating leaks) or even tear it is it gets windblown.

I spent hours today bending all the wires to the inside before putting on the new tarp....

. It was cold & drizzly and my fingers were numb.

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
They are 2x4s, but some people use 4x4s.

Most people build a 2x4 frame and then try to curve the panels and attach them to the frame, which is really hard (we built a tomato tunnel that way, and my husband still doesn't like to talk about it.

)

But one smart BYCer attached the panels to each other and then to the two 16' long 2x4s while flat on the ground. Then they just scooted the 2x4s towards each other to form a hoop at the height needed and attached the two short 2x4s for the ends, adding the vertical ends and door last. If you're building it by yourself, you can just pound some stakes into the ground to hold that edge in place while you move the other side inwards. I wish I could give credit to the clever person who figured this out - if anyone knows, please let us all know.

For winterizing, I added a clear tarp and bought some really heavy clear vinyl (like that used for windows on tents) at a fabric store and am going to cover the vertical walls to act as a windbreak (leaving an opening at the apex of the walls for ventilation). It should also help to keep out a lot of the rain that blows in from the west.

Where winters are severe, some people use hay bales inside; hopefully those with more experience can give you some tips.

we thought that was the easiest part! (4 panels on the smaller coop and 5 on our turkey coop)

we used metal strapping (the strapping with all the holes in it used for hanging plumbing pipe) and made "hinges" to attach the panels to the 2X4's.. then just lifted up the other end and placed it inside the frame. When we build the next one I'll be sure to take pics !

 

[yinepu]

we LOVE our hoop coops!
the one for the DP layers is 9'X16'
the one for the turkeys is 9'X20'

we will be building at least 2 more this spring (one for muscovys and one for meaties).

We used cattle panels and covered them with poultry netting (chicken wire) with the bottom three feet in hardware cloth (didn't feel the need to go with heavier wire since they are guarded by a livestock guardian dog as well as nite guard lights) and covered the tops with tarps

Ours are more of a permanent type structure (though you COULD drag them if you decided to.. they are pretty darn heavy) and we have a lot more birds in there than ladydoc does (I have around 100 birds not counting quail).
the cost ran between 300 & 350 per coop (I would need to pull out the figures for an exact price).. but regardless.. they have proven to be sturdy homes for our birds and should do great when the Texas heat hits next summer.

we were free ranging the birds but the predator losses were too high this past spring.. with the hoop coops we found an affordable solution to keeping the birds in one area where the lights and guardian dog could do their jobs. Plus now I can actually find the eggs without having to search our property for them!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Quote:
I would LOVE to see how you made a coop out of cattle panels! I went to your BYC Website and was very disappointed that you have not posted any pictures of your coop there.

I hope you put some pics up soon of your coop! Sounds really neat, but I simply can not envision what you did. I need photos!

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
I would LOVE to see how you made a coop out of cattle panels! I went to your BYC Website and was very disappointed that you have not posted any pictures of your coop there.

I hope you put some pics up soon of your coop! Sounds really neat, but I simply can not envision what you did. I need photos!

this isn't ours.. but we modeled ours after it (with a few slight modifications).. Also ours are just "open" coops.. there's no big "huddlebox" in ours.. it's just open with roosts on one side and nest boxes on the other so there was no need for the center support
My husband welded the cow panels together on the ends for additional structural strength.. after he did that he said he wished he had welded all of the panels together instead of just the ends

(he loves his welder and likes to play with it any chance he gets)

I still need to take pics of mine (nope didn't take any during the building stages)

 

[Moogie]

Here's our hoop coop - which I love! Works great here in Texas, where the heat is much more of a problem than cold weather. I bought mine third-hand on Craigslist for $175 and it's still in great shape. I plan on extending it by adding another 4' cattle panel to one end (bumping out the end cap) next spring, so I can have MORE chickens!

We just finished adding a clear tarp on today to keep the rain out but let the sunlight and warmth in -- and am trying to figure out how to add an overhang above the door so that I'm not drenched going in and out when it's raining.

Last summer we added a misting system, which our hens love - when the temps are over 100, they'll gladly stand under the misters to cool off. We also added a very small kiddy pool with sand for dust baths. And we use the bucket/nipple watering system. I just cut a couple of wires on the hardware cloth to suspend the bucket on a chain from a wooden support. There's a drop down access door (hard to see on the HC) so that I can fill the water bucket without going inside the hoop coop.

Our hens love using covered cat litter boxes as their nesting boxes - we just set them on the floor. I had regular nesting boxes, but they refused to use them - so we switched to the litter boxes. They sometimes cram 2 at a time inside each box and I can hear them chatting - I expect them to break out the knitting needles and yarn anyday now...

Ours has hardware cloth completely covering all the cattle panels - but I think that may be overkill (for our situation). We could have probably just used 3 or 4 foot tall HC from the ground up, and chicken wire to go from there and up and over the top.

We also added a wire apron to keep predators from digging in - those concrete blocks are holding the wire edges down so we're not constantly tripping over them. I plan on burying the edges - probably after Christmas. Then I can stop tripping over the concrete blocks.

Finally, we added LED lights that cut on at 4 am:

Early morning pic:

After mucking out all the soggy, stinkin' wet hay today, I'm trying to decide if I want to switch to a deep litter or sand situation. If any one has any success stories, I'd love to hear them!!

 

[turbodog]

Quote:
I use sand in my hoop coop and love it!

 

[Moogie]

Quote:
I use sand in my hoop coop and love it!

Could you post a pic??