what I learned about a hoop coop this summer

[lalaland]

been raising chickens for maybe 18 years. maybe 20? anyway, this spring I built a hoop coop and used it to house 25 red rangers raised for meat.

1. You can get 4 hog panels (16' long) in your pickup truck bed (bent into a hoop), but getting them out is crazy. Watch out!
2. If you cover the panels with fencing wire (2"x4" openings) weasels can still get in.
3. If you cover the panels with hardware cloth, it makes it pretty hard to use bungee cords to fasten anything to the coop walls/ceiling, including bungee cords and clamps.
4. Using 4 hog panels, you have a coop that is a little over 11' long. Plenty big for 25 chickens.
5. Don't use one long tarp for 11 feet - you want 2 tarps so you can have openings halfway down the coop for air circulation. The heat really builds up with the sun. You want to be able to have openings at both ends of the coop roof, and in the middle too, even if you have the tarps rolled up the sides.
6. If you bungee the sides of the tarps outwards - think rain fly on a tent - you really help with air circulation and also make shady places for the chickens to hang out in the heat.
7. Best tarp is a billboard tarp. google to see if you can find a place near you - shipping is more than the tarp. You can put in your own grommets pretty danged easily. Should last at least 5 years.
8. Chickens can wing walk up the tarps to the top of the hoop coop, and then....they can fly anywhere.
9. If you plan ahead, you can use bags of leaves inside the coop when the poop starts to build up.
10. The wind can blow the door shut and trap your chickens inside - or outside the coop. BLock the door so it can't blow shut when you are gone.

 

[1cock2hens]

How tall is the hoop coop at its highest point? I guess it depends on how wide you make it huh... How wide is yours ?

 

[lalaland]

10 feet wide. It is tall enough for me, I would say about 5'9" or so. You can make it taller but then you have to cut down a 10' .

 

[1cock2hens]

Coolio thanks for the info

 

[aart]

What...no pics??

 

[josher57]

Ignore all the lumber stuck through like Jenga logs. I was brainstorming and used them as references.

That being said, i used 2 cattle panels 16' x 50". I built an 8'x8' frame on the bottom with kick plates to hold the panels. Its probably 6'4" tall in the middle. I'm 6'2" and I can stand straight up in the middle. The panels overlap in the middle approximately 4".

 

[lalaland]

Josher57, thats a nice looking coop!


Art, here is the coop before it was inhabited, and before the tarps were pulled apart for venting. I made the door wide enough to easily haul in hay bales and feed. Used old cedar fence panels for the back end, and the bottom wall on the front end.








This is a critter hole dug in overnight, thru the 2"x4" welded wire fencing I used as a skirt to keep varmints out. So I then laid hardware cloth over it - wasting the 2x4 fence but in too much of a hurry to unfasten it because the chicks had arrived.