We ended up running chicken wire completely over our hoop coops - before we ever did HC. Chicken wire is much lighter in weight and I could "heave" it up & over by myself and it stayed in place.
HW cloth I have done horizontally - lay the roll down, unroll it for the amount needed, tip it back up and lean it to hold the whole 16' length in place and tack it up. Then used a wire cutter (not one like Aart & Jeria describe) hand tool (tin snips?) to cut. Then attached the wire completely. I've done 2 w/ one run of HC cloth up to 24" tall and 1 w/ a 2nd run (4' tall). For the 2nd horizontal run, unrolled it, cut and then kinda wrestled it up into place and "tacked" (w/ zip ties as no wood on our hoop coop above the base) Then went back & evened it up and put it up tight. The top was not covered by any wire - will be later as don't like only covering in a tarp. The next coop will also be getting a "real" roof of some type of panel - either plastic or tin.
If I was working alone (do that alot!), I can heave and lift up to about 75# to chest level for a short time (a couple of "dead lifts" only - can't throw big alfalfa bales around anymore but can still throw a #50 bag of feed across a distance into a neat pile), but not over my head at all, so going up over anything w/ HC wire roll wouldn't work w/o major pullies set up above what I was working on - don't have that set up on this property. I also would not want a heavy roll of wire above me while attaching the wire - either by hand or with a hammer or staple gun or even while cutting it - my luck would completely run out and I'd be flattened (or one of my grand children would be), no joke.
I need to learn to operate our Drimmel tool w/ steel cutting blade and start using it for some of these "jobs", rather than various types of wire cutters... Looking forward to seeing the tool you've used. I'm still trying to find a local "Hecules" who can bend the end of a cattle panel wire back on itself to make a "hinge". Neither myself nor any of the men in our family can do that, LOL, and I love seeing the handful of others who have managed that with their hoop coops!
LOVE the milk jug idea - I've used 2 ltr bottles (they will roll around/off) or tires both w/ & w/o rims (gets old having to move such heavy/bulky items-but better than having the wire constantly rolling back up).
