All Cooped Up~the coop and run thread

[Hinotori]

I can now compare the cattle panel hooped roof to the metal pole roof that came with the dog kennels. Both types have been through the same crap the last few months. It's no contest which is better. Hooped wins.

The fabric roofs are old and wearing out on the metal poles and expensive to order. I'm taking them down one at a time and putting up cattle panels. The tarps on the hooped roof barely moved in the worst wind which is what makes the wear out fast. It shrugged off the snow with no problems. The old roofs have to have it removed or they will collapse.

 

[Beekissed]

I love the hoops as well. They let the wind just slip right over them and they never even give a tremble and, like you said, the snow just falls off when you give the wires a shake or two.

My chickens have gotten so used to the shaking and sliding off of the snow that they don't even startle any longer when I do it.

Being able to stretch the plastics and tarps tightly to the arched panels keeps them from moving and wearing out so quickly.

 

[Hinotori]

My silkies sleep in little houses, but their runs are made from dog kennel panels. 3/4 of the 10x20 runs are covered. That is changing.

The heavy snow load last winter bent the metal roof poles on two pens and I was only able to salvage enough to fix one. So using 1 inch pvc, 45° and slip joints, and kennel clamps I made a 10x20 roof over one pen. I can't justify spending the money they want for a lightweight tarp that would cover the whole thing when two of the smaller heavyweight tarps from Costco covers it just fine at a fraction of the cost. Those things will last two years in our weather. Ends of the tarps are clamped to the poles to help prevent movement.

The roof stood up to our first windstorm of the year better than the roofs that came with the kennels.

I have all the pvc and joints, so I'll be roofing the other kennels fully soon.

I need to put down more straw in the runs. That will do the silkies fine for 3-4 months.

The large fowl hens have an 8x15 dirt floored shed structure they live in. Their run is 15x35. 4 bales of straw every 2 months out there in winter. I really need to give in and just put down twice that amount. I put down two extra last year and it went almost 6 months. Mud is an issue, plus worms breaking it down from below. Lots of worms. Also no rocks like our actual soil so it can get soft.

It used to be a lower-than-surroundings spot, which means standing puddles here even if it's not the lowest ground. After 6 years it's so built up it's much higher than around it.

When I move the large fowl next year or so, I'm planting there. It will be the best garden soil I could ever want.

 

[Beekissed]

I'll say!!! Should be able to plant dimes and grow dollars in soil like that.

Probably pretty hard to keep silky fur and feet clean and dry in the wet months, huh?

Straw is about $7-$10 a bale here and wood shavings around $7...about the same where you live?

 

[NH Homesteader]

We will be working on the runs shortly, good to see what other people are doing. We use shavings in the coop and have not typically used anything in the runs. Our birds don't seem to mind snow on the ground, just don't love being snowed on!

I don't even know where to buy straw, lol but shavings are about $6-7 so about the same here.

The turkeys will be in a 4 cattle panel deep hoop coop for the winter. They don't mind the snow, the cold, rain or anything else NH can throw at them. We just try to keep them out of the wind and they're good.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

they have a ridiculous amount of foot feathering to make walking on it easier.

Wow - built in snowshoes (that don't get used)!

 

[Beekissed]

We fixed up the ancient (not sure how old, could be as old as the barn) coop last year. Anyway, it's in really bad condition, and it took a lot of time but very little money to fix it up to a usable state. However, I don't think it'll do for another year (though I'm sure we can limp it along in need be) so we're now figuring out if we can build a new coop in the spring.

TR, I LOVE old coops...gotta pic? Love that little piece of history in the US that are quickly disappearing, about as quickly as the old barns.

 

[Hinotori]

And my stupid pvc roof cant take an inch of wet snow. Rain and high wind are fine. That sucks. Back to the drawing board.

 

[Beekissed]

And my stupid pvc roof cant take an inch of wet snow. Rain and high wind are fine. That sucks. Back to the drawing board.

Awwww, Hinotori! I'm sorry! It hurts to do a lot of work and it didn't pan out...been there a lot. Can you get cattle panels to work in your setup?

 

[Hinotori]

You've used a lot of cattle pannels yes? Will they support it well enough over 10 feet? They would be easy enough to attach to the fence panels.

Eta. I know you hoop the 16 foot panels. All the coops I've seen made with them are 8 foot across, not 10. But then I don't need to worry about it being tall enough since they will be attached to 6 foot tall fence.