Hoop Houses

[Pathfinders]

Just thought I'd post a picture of one of our hoop houses, with a link to our page about them. We use them as grow-out pens, and here in the (relatively) mild KY winters we can even keep birds over-winter in them (depending on breed) by putting plastic on the front. They are great because two people can just pick them up and move them to a new patch of grass every couple of days. Only drawback is if it gets really windy, they can and do blow away, so we stake them down.

They can be made cheaply, this one was made from scrap wood, two cattle panels, two tarps, zip ties, and some hardware cloth:

And see our website here for more pics about them and our other tractors:

http://www.pathfindersfarm.com/hoophouse.html

The fencing around it is electric poultry netting, great for keeping birds in and predators out.

 

[luckyducky]

My 10 year old son and I built one of these last summer for our 9 chickens and 2 ducks, we then banked it with straw for winter and double tarped it, it has been great even here in the frigid North, and an easy and inexpensive way to keep our poultry safe and warm. I did hang a heat lamp in the coop and have been bringing in fresh water morning and night, and only some of the nights has the water actually frozen. I highly recommend this coop design for someone who wants birds but is completely useless as a carpenter!