TWEAK MY COOP~Tweaks on the Cheap

[Loghousemom]

I have pieced hardware cloth together for fencing in areas with just some old fence wire and needle nose pliers. It worked well and kept the dogs out and chickens in. I don't really fence in the chickens much, but do need something to keep the dogs out while we are away. My fence is only about 4 ft high with wooden posts every 20 ft or so. The field side has barb wire over the top , but the yard side does not. I do not use my fence as predator proofing. So this might not work for your purpose.

 

[Beekissed]

So with two sheets of lattice we "tweaked our coop" this morning. Ours is visible from the street (we live in town) so we wanted to minimize the visual.

Before:



After:


TADA!!

Love the privacy, Blooie! Very spruce!

I like your idea! Now I wish I had not recycled my guys old trampoline! We saved the bed part and have used it for shading.

Here is a question: What would you use to piece 2 sections of hardware cloth together? Tempted to use plastic zip ties but don't want anything to squeeze in. And it needs to be budget friendly.
Building my small 3' (high)x 4' x 6' coop with pen on bottom and going to compelling enclose it with hardware cloth but will need to piece a section or two together.
Any good ideas?
Anyone successfully used milk crates on their sides with dish pans inside for nests? I have 30+ milk crates in my yard and 2 plastic dish pans. Thinking to use 2 in the coop and 2 under.

For tying in two pieces of wire and wanting to do it cheaply you can always "sew" them together with wire...there are different gauges of wire you can buy on a spool and I can't remember the gauge I always used but I usually keep a spool of it around for just such things as this....easy to manipulate, bend and twist, it can meet up two pieces of wire and keep them pretty secure, with no gaps like one would get with zips or clips.

 

[Blooie]

Love the privacy, Blooie! Very spruce!

Thank you Bee...that means a lot coming from you!

For tying in two pieces of wire and wanting to do it cheaply you can always "sew" them together with wire...there are different gauges of wire you can buy on a spool and I can't remember the gauge I always used but I usually keep a spool of it around for just such things as this....easy to manipulate, bend and twist, it can meet up two pieces of wire and keep them pretty secure, with no gaps like one would get with zips or clips.

That's what we did...we sewed it together where ever we had a connection to make. Worked great, and it's secure as well.

 

[hbhoffman]

Thank you, beekissed! That sounds like a viable solution with no gaps and spending more $ on tools!
It took about 2 hours of phoning different stores but I found a 4' wide by 10' long 1/2" hardware cloth today. So hopefully I will not have to piece it! Going to put the 4' under the pen then wrap the 3' around the whole pen overlapping the bottom a bit. Hopefully tomorrow I will start that learning curve. ... never done this before.

 

[Beekissed]

Finally getting my extra pen escape proof. Will slowly add other features to it as I deconstruct and tweak the larger coop and repurpose the nests from there for my holding pen. Can't wait to get all this done and functioning.

For now I can place my broody in there and leave her sitting on some wooden eggs until my nest box incubator hatch is finished and I can slip them under a foster mama for their care. Nine more days for that, so I'm hoping to keep her interested until then.

Today am placing more grommets in the clear/opaque tarp I bought and will start the laborious task of cutting the one million zip ties that keep the old tarp on the coop, not to mention removing the firring strips, ripping off the old plastic under the roof cap, etc. Wish I had help for all that...but I put it all on there by myself and can take it back off all the same.

 

[tntchix]

Finally getting my extra pen escape proof. Will slowly add other features to it as I deconstruct and tweak the larger coop and repurpose the nests from there for my holding pen. Can't wait to get all this done and functioning.

For now I can place my broody in there and leave her sitting on some wooden eggs until my nest box incubator hatch is finished and I can slip them under a foster mama for their care. Nine more days for that, so I'm hoping to keep her interested until then.

Today am placing more grommets in the clear/opaque tarp I bought and will start the laborious task of cutting the one million zip ties that keep the old tarp on the coop, not to mention removing the firring strips, ripping off the old plastic under the roof cap, etc. Wish I had help for all that...but I put it all on there by myself and can take it back off all the same.

Bee, I read this entire thread, commenting to myself along the way. What a great way for folks to show their updates, uh oh's and wish I'd done that's. Your posts are always inspiring.

 

[Beekissed]

Bee, I read this entire thread, commenting to myself along the way. What a great way for folks to show their updates, uh oh's and wish I'd done that's. Your posts are always inspiring.

Well, thank you! That was the purpose of the thread...I've made so many mistakes along the way that I thought it would be helpful to pass it along so others wouldn't do the same.

 

[tntchix]

I'm learning so much from everybody. I love BYC!

 

[Beekissed]

I'm learning so much from everybody. I love BYC!

There are many educational threads here and I have learned a lot in the years I have been reading and asking questions, but one has to be careful of whom they ask....folks that have not had chickens for very long are apt to be answering questions like they are old hands at poultry and they pass along a lot of misinformation they might have read in a book or on a blog site.

Pick and choose the info, ask again of someone else, really do the research and you'll find you can navigate past those newbies and get the real nitty gritty if you hang around long enough. Some really good chicken folks on this forum if you know where to find them. Sometimes you'll find they congregate together and that's a jackpot situation for newbies wanting to just sit back and learn.

We used to have an old timer's thread on here that was just pure gold...it's still here somewhere but was locked down about a year ago. That's worth a read, I tell ya.

 

[tntchix]

There are many educational threads here and I have learned a lot in the years I have been reading and asking questions, but one has to be careful of whom they ask....folks that have not had chickens for very long are apt to be answering questions like they are old hands at poultry and they pass along a lot of misinformation they might have read in a book or on a blog site.

Pick and choose the info, ask again of someone else, really do the research and you'll find you can navigate past those newbies and get the real nitty gritty if you hang around long enough. Some really good chicken folks on this forum if you know where to find them. Sometimes you'll find they congregate together and that's a jackpot situation for newbies wanting to just sit back and learn.

We used to have an old timer's thread on here that was just pure gold...it's still here somewhere but was locked down about a year ago. That's worth a read, I tell ya.

Thanks for the advice. Yep, I have found a few of the old timer's in a few posts. Gold is right.