Modified Hoop Coop Design Development

[Victoria-nola]

Have discovered a glitch and posting a photo to show our solution. The guineas LOVE their coop, they go to it when it's raining, and off and on throughout the day. Each evening we lock the door, and open it each morning. Some of the guineas like to fly out the front door. Unfortunately, some of them kept perceiving the space above the door as open, and would fly into it. One of them injured herself pretty badly, and although she recovered, we wanted to do something to make it more visible to them as being a solid wall. So husb Bill put some black gorilla duct tape directly onto the hardware cloth from the outside in a type of X pattern, and eventually will replace the tape with strips of rubber or something longer term. First morning, they all saw the barrier and ever since then, no more flying into it. So we just wanted to let folks know that, with this coop design of the guineas being able to roost above the door height, they can "fail to perceive" the solid barrier above the door. Here's a photo:

 

[Molpet]

wow you would think they could see the wire.. silly birds

 

[aart]

Huh...is this a new thing?
Wonder if the light was just weird, making the mesh 'invisible' and they forgot they couldn't get thru there?
Might have also been a panic move?
Whatever it was/is, good solution!

I remember getting my first flock into my brand new totally HC coop,
they tried to fly thru the HC ceiling and walls.
They figured it out but once in a while they'll fly into it.

 

[Victoria-nola]

wow you would think they could see the wire.. silly birds

It's only a few who don't see it, but, they repeatedly didn't see it. I know this type of thing is why some people say guineas are none too bright, but I believe that each creature is a genius in its own niche, and putting guineas in a coop is not natural to them and they can have problems. But adding the black tape has totally solved the problem.

 

[Victoria-nola]

Huh...is this a new thing?
Wonder if the light was just weird, making the mesh 'invisible' and they forgot they couldn't get thru there?
Might have also been a panic move?
Whatever it was/is, good solution!

I remember getting my first flock into my brand new totally HC coop,
they tried to fly thru the HC ceiling and walls.
They figured it out but once in a while they'll fly into it.

Well exactly-- most of them weren't having any problems, but 2-3 of them continued to run into the HC every few mornings-- not to the point of injury, they seemed to get better at braking somehow and not smashing so hard. And no, it wasn't a new thing. We just thought they'd grow out of it. Thankfully it was a simple solution.

 

[Newbiechickchic]

Loving this plan.. but where do I find the actual plan? Approximately how much does it cost to build?

 

[aart]

Loving this plan.. but where do I find the actual plan? Approximately how much does it cost to build?

There is no 'actual plan'...they just figured it out along the way.
Did you read thru the whole thread?
Can't remember if she shared the actual cost.

 

[Victoria-nola]

Quote:
Yes, we worked it out along the way. I would like to write an article with more hard figures and better step-by-step, but I'm not sure I'll ever have the time and not sure exactly how to do the foundation-- we had our handyfriend here to do that part.

The base measurement of our coop s 8' x 24'. That required 11 cattle panels total, which includes 6 panels in the arch across the top. You need four 8-ft T-posts for each panel in the arch, so that came out to 24 T-posts total.

Hardware cloth: Each pass over the arch and down to the ground on each side is 24-ft or so, which meant that 1 roll of 1/2-in hardware cloth (48" wide) covers 2 panels. With 6 panels total, that meant it took 3 rolls for the roof and lengthwise of the structure, then another partial roll to cover the ends. So you'd need to buy 4 rolls total for the shell. We also covered the floor with hardware cloth, which took basically a whole roll. So that would be 5 rolls total, roughly, but do the math to be certain. (see below for story on floor covering)

Then there is the 2x4 lumber, deck screws, and various Simpson ties that were used to join the cross-ties and the foundation pieces, plus hardware for the door.

The roof tarp-- we bought a 16x24 tarp. It's what's called a "clear tarp" or "clear poly tarp"-- UV-protected, super heavy gauge with reinforcing fibers on a grid. The 16x24 tarp is actually smaller than that-- 16x24 is the size before they fold over the edges and install the grommets, plus there was a miscalculation in the base, so our tarp doesn't cover the whole length of the coop. Turns out the guineas like to get up on that very front cross-tie that is almost open to the sky, so it's not a problem, but one could plan the length of the base to coordinate with the exact size of the tarp, and you would want to if this were in snow country (remember to include room for the tarp to overlap the edges at the ends). There are lots of sellers of these tarps online-- I shopped around till I found the cheapest/best combination of cost+shipping, which varies wildly. Also, the one we bought has grommets every 18-in instead of 3-ft, which is the common spacing.

Black (UV-protected) nylon zipties to hold it all together during construction, and then the hog rings (metal joining rings) or other metal joiners needed to hold it all together for the long run. We used tons of nylon zipties and have not yet put on the metal hog-rings. Use lots.

So whatever the current prices in one's area are for that, would be your costs. It was not cheap, but it will last a VERY long time, was super easy (relative to traditional construction) to put up, and can be taken down and moved or materials reused.

I'm sorry that I can't do more than this right now to sort our your questions. If you read it over and look at the photos, you can start to envision. I or Aart can answer any specific questions, or we'll try.


----------------------------

THE FLOOR COVERING: Two nights ago, middle of the night I'm working on a project (I am a tech writer, I work at home), I hear a terrible commotion out in the guinea coop. They do sometimes get loud in the night, but this had a timbre to it that raised my hackles. I grabbed two high-power flashlights, bundled up, and hurried out there. Stopped at the gate, before I made any sounds, and hid the flashlights when I got near, to listen to what was going on. I heard a scratching, scrabbling sound and made it out to be a dog and felt safe on my side of the fence, but I was afraid to barge up to it since I had no weapon. So I used the best weapon I've been blessed with, which is my voice, that can be extremely loud and menacing (I once made a spider jump when I used to be afraid of them). I shined the lights, and I screamed, in my extremely loud, low, "mean" voice-- "get out of here".... the dog stopped, listening... I yelled again "get out of here and never come back..." Etc., As soon as I started up yelling the second time, that dog had bolted in the closest direction off our property and kept running until I couldn't hear it anymore. I approached the coop, and there were two guineas on the ground, in 2 separate kitty-corners, the food canister was tipped over, feathers everywhere. The dog had not gotten in, but 2 of the guineas had been demonstrating, inside the coop, that they would fight the dog to the death, willing to sacrifice themselves if need be. They were all okay the next day, no one with lasting stress damage.

So, a long story to illustrate that it's really important to have floor protection. The hardware cloth meant that the dog couldn't get through.

-------------

 

[Molpet]

I have aprons that come out about 2' of HC .. you can see it on the right side

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Hi Victoria, it’s been awhile, so I’m hoping that you still monitor this thread. I’m thinking of trying your design for the guinea hoop coop, and wonder how it’s held up. What happens with snow and ice storms? Thanks for any update!