Pics of My Hoophouses for Luvs

Here are some pics of my hoop houses. Each ideally would hold 8-10 hens and a roo.

Sheila

I love it thanks, going out to get supplies.

Another Pic

What kind of wire is that?

Harmony, It is cattle pannels covered in chicken wire. 1 inch chicken wire is what we use

Are Those expensive i live on a tight chicken budget?............Oh and nice sun dress LOL!

Well Phooy I can't get the last 2 pics to load on my dial up. They run about 150 to 175 each. We can build them in about 3 - 4 hours with out kids and about 3 - 4 weeks with children. LOL

Sheila

Is the 150 the complete pen?

That is SO funny Sheila.. Molly, Badseed & I all use hoophouses as both green houses & coops.. and you are right.. about the kids & time.. LOL, in our case it was the dog..

Everytime dh put on his version of heavy duty uv plastic.. that night the end where the door was going in would "rattle" in the wind.. the dog would go nuts with his paws & claws... 3 times that poor man recovers that hoophouse.. LOL

We finally fenced IN the hoophouse.. and the dog lived!

Harmony each cattle panel runs under $20. The expensive part would probably be the chicken wire which has gone up in price.

Sheila what kind of winter temps do you get down there?

MollyD

Where do you get the cattle panels? Feed store?

Days are usually above freezing, some nights are below, but in the winter, we put big round bales on the back to enclose that and make it draft free and are putting plastic on the fronts.

Cattle panels are from the feed store. Ours are up to 28 dollars from 17 two months ago.

Sheila

P.S. I will also be running lights so that they continue to lay and also for added warmth.

Cat here we can get them at Tractor Supply.

Sheila how low does it go? We can hit -20F in a bad winter.
I'm wondering if I can use something like that with my birds.

MollyD

Catscan, I saw them at Home Depot!!! Not cattle panels, but the concrete "remesh" that is very heavy duty. I don't remember how much..

Molly, I think I had said before, but I plan on putting on heavy canvas tarp that has been sprayed on the outer with a water repelant.
I know the plastic would deter the winds better, but it seemd like in the winter our winds come with ice daggers that slice right through any kind of plastic. I will leave the plastic tarp on the top as that is sandwiched between the cattle pannel and chicken wire.. In addition I will be adding extra straw and little hiding holes, ie buckets.. they will have their coop, but it is so small to spend the entire winter in.
My fear is, last november & december we had more days below zero than the last ten years.
If your thinking of letting your birds stay outside in yours all winter.. I can tell you.. the guy in the town a mile away has a very small shed, sort of looks like a tall skinny outhouse.. but with the door propped open, that was his chickens "out of the weather" and I went by there oftern to see how his girls held up.. I assume they slept in there at night, but they were definitly outside everyday scratching and pecking.. and it was COLD!

I also read another way to keep the water from freezing.
put a light fixture inside a cinder block put the water bowl on top.. turn the light on.. the brick will heat and become a heat source and a water deicer.

Good idea. What kind of bowl and what watt bulb?

the deicer I see in the farm store is the metal pan.. why not use the same, besides they are cheap and dont hold their heat.. so the brick would hold the heat and the pan would help radiate... a metal facing down and a metal facing up????

Would the metal pan get too hot for the chickens to touch?

I don't think at 0 or below.. at the feed store there is the same thing

http://www.flemingoutdoors.com/elhebaforpof.html
here is one that I am talking about.. so why not a dish upside down to hold the heat in.. or even fire brick?? just ideas to hold heat.. I have visions of my birds gathered around the fountian.

That would make a great pic. LOL

Like the hoop house. Not sure they would work around here. We get pretty severe winds 70 to 90 miles per hr October through March. Looks like they would be great anywhere else in southern california, attractive and easy to build. I like that.

well sethought, not sure where you are, but here in Illinois we have a lot of high winds.. many 40-60 mph windy days this spring/summer

my hoophouse have been up for 3 years now.. this is the first year for the chicken house thought. Now I am not sure about the rest, but we made a wooden frame around the bottom and achored it into the ground with rebar stakes.

I am wondering, would pvc pipe be cheaper? I have not priced it in a long time. Even tho I do have the cattle panel on hand. And I do have the chicken wire also. I might see if we can build one tomorrow, ball game on today. GO OU beat texas!!!!!!!!!

Well might be able to do it this afternoon depending on how bad the game goes at half time.

Either one will bonk you in the chompers if you let go... LOL be careful and use 3 hands.. it is a cartoon to watch someone doing this alone..

might really want a hand

yea I can see that happening. I have the cattle panels so that I can do just not by myself. probably not the pvc either.

Come on girls where are your muscles. I put both of those together by myself. Just put on side of the panel in the groove and then walk the other side up and place it. I t can be done.

Sheila

We have Termite's here in georgia and i can't put a wood frame on the ground any suggestions??

Harmony try rebar pounded into the ground with a few inches above ground. Fasten the panel to the rebar. If you can either bend one end of the rebar or buy it already bent that will make it easier to fasten the panels.

Frans thank you. I don't think I had seen the info on the waterproof canvas.

Seth I've had my hoophouse cattle panel greenhouse (sheesh what a mouthful!) three years now and it has withstood many severe wind storms and blizzards. My precious seedlings were inside and they never suffered. Worse that happen was the door froze shut (condensation on the outside cause it was way warmer inside than out doors) but I dealt with that. I've been very happy with mine but now want more head room so I can fit in more plants.

MollyD

Hello
I have made a tractor for a green house and next spring it will be a chicken house . Make new GH too LOL
I love the pics and they are giving me ideas
I had seedlings in my Gh when it was 24 with a windchill and they did great was 60 in the GH !
Just have a hard time keeping the plastic taped down. ?

taynors I used 1" wood strips to fix the plastic down. Runs lengthwise along the greenhouse. My GH has a 2' high kneewall and that's what they're nailed to. I rolled the extra plastic up with the wood strip in the middle, then screwed through the whole thing. Plastic has never moved.

MollyD

Hey Molly, could you take a close-up pic of your 1" wood strips that hold the plastic down.. thats where we have always had trouble.

WHen we put the tarp on the top, the edges are turned up 6 inches and have a rod in the crease and then a layer of chicken wire over all.. that tarp has not scooted a drop for a year since it was put up.

When we put on the canvas, I don't plan on adding another layer of wire, but we were going to have something go across every foot or two lenthwise.. just to keep things tight to the hoop.. yea guess you can say we do overdo it.

Just found some chicken wire today 4'x150' for $52. I swear it is mispriced..,but there is about 5 pallets of fence there so maybe it is just overstocked. I may buy a roll or two, 1 for my veggie garden and the other, just because.

Fran grab that wire and run i just bought a 24"x50' roll and it was $20!

Fran, grab it all. pay 85 a roll

Grab that wire! It's gotten very expensive up here!!

I'll try later today to snap the picture. We're heading out in a while and I still have to get ready. Going to a Pumpkin Chunkin party.

MollyD

Have fun that sounds better than a cow patty chunkin party.

Ok Shelia, so you can build them hoop houses? Well then by golly I bet I could give it a whirl. I may look for the son in law next week to help. I have all the material to build 2 I think. Will need to get more tarps for the rest. 8-10 hens and 1 roo. So should be able to put 24-30 bantams in one. If so that would be GREAT. I am over run with bantams. Do you have a roost in there, I was thinking of putting in a couple cinder blocks and then a roost on them. Then need to make some nesting boxes for the layers. Getting excited about building these. Hey there may be a market for them around here. I know I see alot of adds for people wanting chicken pens built.

The really cool part is you can go as many as you need length-wise.. so you can have 8 wide X 6 tall X 10, 20, 40, 60 ect.. long... just keep adding on..

I have this idea.. I am going to draw it out later and will attach it.. going to need plenty of fellow chicken head ideas to make this work right!

I really like this idea i went to tractor supply and these were $22.99 and i can afford that.

Hey fran do you think with the termites here i could put it up on some cement blocks??

I like the making it long as you want!

Tina-

The Square foot in these is 64 when they are 8 x 8. So really 16 Large Fowl hens. Just had 11 for breeding pens. I keep 10 hens and a roo or 2.

I do have 2 roosts in there. I use the spindles that are for your deck. They are 1 x 1 and are already rounded on all 4 sides. They are also fairly cheap. I drill holes in both ends and then wire them to the sides of the cattle panel about 2/3 of the way up.

Sheila

Maymony that is what I was thinking also, cinder block base.

knslwilliams,

Hoop houses are not the best shelter type for poultry in my region due to the cold winters but they ares fantastic for those with poultry in warmer climates. I could modify your version for use as a brooder during the late spring thru summer ... whenever I get around to buying the pheasants we've been wanting to replenish our property with. Thanks for the terrific representation.

Kelly in Moxee

This message was edited Oct 12, 2008 12:11 PM