Hoop Houses -Plus and Minuses

[3 NH reds]

joining this so I have plans for next spring. Want to try 25 or so cornish and need a cheap coop for them. My wood frame ones add up.

 

[MEMama3]

That sounds perfect! Can you post a pic of your hoop run and the raised beds? It sure would be a great idea for others to follow..and think about how much nutrients from the run is leaching into those growing beds!

Here you go! You can sort of see it in my profile picture, but here are better pictures:

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I've currently got three grape plants started on the side as well as some sunflowers. There are a few misc. groundcover plants in there too. I'm hoping to do more next year. This year I just quickly filled in the beds with what I had. The hoop part is PVC conduit bent in a frame. The lattice was slowly bent over the conduit and secured. It measures 6'x7'. I added the pallet area in the back measuring 4'x4' for the extra square footage and to have a dry space for their food.

Excuse the mess around the coop LOL

 

[yogifink]

Here's a few shots of the hoop house we just built. It's 16x9(ish), cattle/combo panel with hardware cloth and apron. All 2x6 framing to withstand lots and lots of abuse.

This is a perm structure for use with a house attached on the back end. Although if you had a skip/cat or flat bed or maybe came up with a design that has some wheels on it you could make it mobile. ...Maybe even build it on a trailer???

 

[Beekissed]

Here you go! You can sort of see it in my profile picture, but here are better pictures:

​

I've currently got three grape plants started on the side as well as some sunflowers. There are a few misc. groundcover plants in there too. I'm hoping to do more next year. This year I just quickly filled in the beds with what I had. The hoop part is PVC conduit bent in a frame. The lattice was slowly bent over the conduit and secured. It measures 6'x7'. I added the pallet area in the back measuring 4'x4' for the extra square footage and to have a dry space for their food.

Excuse the mess around the coop LOL

How stinkin' cute!!! I LOVE the raised beds beside it and I would never have thought the lattice would be strong enough to take a load of snow...I'll have to be rethinking my next hoop structure as I'm kind of wanting to add a winter porch off the back of my hoop coop without putting too much hoohaw into it. Thank you!!! You could grow some lovely vines right up that thing and make it even more shady..even vines of something edible that could be fed to the chooks later like cukes, melons, or small pumpkins. Got the wheels aturnin!

Here's a few shots of the hoop house we just built. It's 16x9(ish), cattle/combo panel with hardware cloth and apron. All 2x6 framing to withstand lots and lots of abuse.

This is a perm structure for use with a house attached on the back end. Although if you had a skip/cat or flat bed or maybe came up with a design that has some wheels on it you could make it mobile. ...Maybe even build it on a trailer???

That is one sturdy build!!! What an excellent use of the hoop tunnel and an excellent design for shedding snow and rain off the run during the winter months. You could put a few grow frames in it right now to protect some of that grass and then put the rest to deep litter and you'd have some great run going there. If it's a permanent structure, placing some raised beds on either side of it, like the pic above and letting things vine up it in the summer months could grow even more food for the chooks in the garden beds and on the vines, while making it even cuter. VERY good build on that! Wish I had made mine longer and thought to keep it stationary from the very start so that I would have a bigger coop right now.

 

[yogifink]

#BeeKissed, thank you for your kind words.

We are experimenting with grow beds in a different coop right now, not sure how well they are working out though. Do you have a recommendation on how to build these? I used landscape timber in a rectangle (like 2x6), some paneling and then chicken wire, so the top of the bed is about 3 inches from the ground. Any insight would be awesome.

Love the idea for planters on the sides of the run. We are planning to grow vining spinach and possibly squash or cukes up the sides, but were just going to plant them in the ground.

 

[yinepu]

I don't think I ever came back with pics of ours.. but the link with pics is in my signature

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/our-hoop-coops

we have several now.. planning to add another this fall...

 

[Beekissed]

#BeeKissed, thank you for your kind words.

We are experimenting with grow beds in a different coop right now, not sure how well they are working out though. Do you have a recommendation on how to build these? I used landscape timber in a rectangle (like 2x6), some paneling and then chicken wire, so the top of the bed is about 3 inches from the ground. Any insight would be awesome.

Love the idea for planters on the sides of the run. We are planning to grow vining spinach and possibly squash or cukes up the sides, but were just going to plant them in the ground.

What you are making seem pretty standard to how others are making them except the chicken wire...most are using hardware cloth but I would use a square size up from the hardware cloth so that broad leaf plants could emerge through the wire.

If I had a run and was planting a grow frame I'd use a mix of grasses from tall fescue and orchard grass to white dutch clover(if you have access to whatever grows naturally in your area pastures, it would probably do well) and I'd also seed some kale, cold weather spinach and winter wheat in them so that you could have some growth going all year long. It's a neat thing to be able to have their own green forage right in their run and I wish everyone were doing this for their birds.

 

[Cknldy]

Great ideas! I plan on doing raised beds outside of all the coops built just to make things nice. I tend to kill all plants unless they are the kind that live when you forget about them Since I go to the chickens every day I won't forget and the chickens can help me grow plants! Thanks to this forum I may see to it that a short covered bed is made in the coops for nibbling, especially since birdseed grew fast for me before and the chickies loved the 'grass'. Question with cattle panels- how are yall getting the rounded ends? Are you just cutting a panel for the shape and attaching it to the bent over one? I may try these because although I am proud when I finish a coop with only the children helping (one coop for each breed, quite a few more to go...) I get burned out with collecting free leftover wood, sawing, hammering, stapling to finally see the end product. Not afraid of the hard work, just would like something that is faster.

 

[Beekissed]

Yep...I just fastened the panel as is to the end of the hoop and cut around the shape of the arch with a sawsall. That has become my favorite power tool, right up there with my DeWalt drill, for versatility and plain ol' gettin er done capabilities.

 

[Cknldy]

Glad to see you're back bee. Thanks for the answer!