These hoop coops are what we are currently using at the university here in Jeff City, MO. Build cost depends on your preferences, but ours ran about ~$300-350 with current lumber prices. I am working on a comprehensive build guide, but the original plans were made based on
this publication out of Kentucky. Just note their cost specs are very out of date and they assume some general knowledge of tools/materials. I can also provide a draft of our comprehensive guide if someone is interested. Eventually the full guide will be publicly available - just needs some editing and pictures.
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Our initial build used their 5mil tarps because they are cheap, but I will tell you they did not hold up. Between rubbing on a few rough points of wire/wood/etc and UV damage from the sun, they had large tears and were visibly degraded within about six months. We replaced both with 10-mil tarps which were more expensive, but have lasted longer. You definitely will want to secure the structure to the ground. We just tie the braces on the front to t-posts driven into the ground or use ground anchors.
These are roughly 8 x 8 and have worked well for ~15 pullets/hens.
