This is a hoop shelter with chicken wire over the wire panels and the beginning of wire nesting boxes for chickens. This particular hoop coop has lived 2 years, housed ducks in the winter and chickens in the summer, and now has ducks again. The ends were cut to move easier when pulled forward and the shelter was covered with a tarp.
This is a 2 panel shelter, 8 x 10 feet approximately. The end is going to be done with plywood and plywood will cover the majority of the wire except the front. It will be for winter hardy chickens or waterfowl as well as a summer portable coop that is moved daily.
The basic hoop shelter is a wonderful, portable "building" with much versatility. The Fat Ewe Farm has five eight by ten foot models and one sixteen by eight foot model. The larger one is too heavy to pull with the little lawn tractor and is moved when empty, while the animals are out free ranging. The smaller coops can be moved with the birds inside using the lawn tractor. It is easy to watch the birds and they soon learn to walk forward along with the move and look forward to new grass.
These shelters are also used for summer rain getaways for the sheep and goats when they are in the electric net fencing on pasture. They make excellent growing out pens and the farm coops have had rabbits, baby goats, chicks, ducklings, adult ducks and chickens, turkeys and even puppies in them. For security, the ends that house birds have stucco wire fixed tightly so no predators can get in, or a combination of chicken wire over the livestock panel and hardware cloth and stucco wire on the ends. Perches are 4 inch fence posts wired to the spaces in the panels, though even large tree branches have been wired in place. This year we will be using slabs, which are pine or spruce boards rough cut to 99 inches by 1 inch thick by 6 inches wide. Cut in half to 3 inches, they are ideal for chicken perches so they can keep their feet flat and rest their warm bellies over the toes, rather than curl them under. That is where the risk of getting cold is problematic.
These coops can be covered with clear plastic and used for green houses as well. I think the possibilities are about as many as the imagination desires, but the best thing is I can build them myself, though I have been fortunate from time to time to have help.
Tomorrow, the plywood will be put on, instead of a tarp, and maybe even painted. I suppose with a door and window, the coop could be a mini shed or garage for a lawn tractor. Hey, come to think of it, I need one of those....hmmm.
These shelters are also used for summer rain getaways for the sheep and goats when they are in the electric net fencing on pasture. They make excellent growing out pens and the farm coops have had rabbits, baby goats, chicks, ducklings, adult ducks and chickens, turkeys and even puppies in them. For security, the ends that house birds have stucco wire fixed tightly so no predators can get in, or a combination of chicken wire over the livestock panel and hardware cloth and stucco wire on the ends. Perches are 4 inch fence posts wired to the spaces in the panels, though even large tree branches have been wired in place. This year we will be using slabs, which are pine or spruce boards rough cut to 99 inches by 1 inch thick by 6 inches wide. Cut in half to 3 inches, they are ideal for chicken perches so they can keep their feet flat and rest their warm bellies over the toes, rather than curl them under. That is where the risk of getting cold is problematic.
These coops can be covered with clear plastic and used for green houses as well. I think the possibilities are about as many as the imagination desires, but the best thing is I can build them myself, though I have been fortunate from time to time to have help.
Tomorrow, the plywood will be put on, instead of a tarp, and maybe even painted. I suppose with a door and window, the coop could be a mini shed or garage for a lawn tractor. Hey, come to think of it, I need one of those....hmmm.
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