Like many folks, when we got our first chickens, we thought we'd be happy with four or five chickens and a cute, small coop that measured 4'x4'. You can see our first coop HERE.
And... like many folks, we quickly discovered how addictive chickens can be and wanted to add to our flock. We created our second (mobile) coop out of a horse trailer and you can see the results HERE.
We now also have a larger shed with breeding pens that you can see HERE.
But more chickens just kept happening! (Insert totally innocent look here.)
It wasn't long before we needed an inexpensive, spacious, durable chicken-housing option. Now mind you, this isn't the "cutest" option, but we have found it to be such a sensible option that we now have FIVE hoop coops on our current property that house everything from chickens to turkeys to peafowl to sheep, because why not?
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| The back view of our flight-pens for chickens, turkeys and peafowl. |
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| A fully-enclosed area with an open hoop coop. Our Great Pyrenees livestock guardian dogs patrol the perimeter 24x7. Duke is making his presence known in the background. |
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| Our hoop coop for one of our peafowl pairs. This one has a front framed with PVC. PLEASE NOTE - this setup will NOT prevent predators. We rely on multiple livestock guardian dogs to keep our birds safe. |
Our original hoop coop is more than 7 years old. This style is highly predator proof and durable. We built it when we lived 120 miles from our current property and actually cut and rolled it up and put it on a trailer to bring it with us when we moved.
Amazingly it is just as sturdy now. It needs a new tarp (badly), but it's as handy as ever. It's at the far end of our property and when we aren't using it to quarantine new birds, the sheep and lambs use it on a daily basis.
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| This old coop is still predator proof. |
First and foremost, know your predators. Are your main predators raccoons, skunks and Yorkshire Terriers, or do you have weasels, mink, bears or wolves roaming your area? If you have large predators like bears and wolves, you will need to use solid wood supports, strong wire instead of zip ties, heavier-duty wire on the front and on the apron to prevent digging.
If mink, stoat and weasels are common where you live, then consider installing a wire floor and understand that using plenty of hardware cloth will be very important.
If, like us, you have reliable livestock guardian dogs, you may be able to get away with minimal wire and wood. There are so many ways to build these coops, so be sure fit your coop to your individual needs.
Using 16' x 4' Cattle Panels, you can configure your coop's square footage based upon how much bow you put in the panel. You can have a 10' wide coop that is about 5' high, or with more bow, you can have an 8' wide coop that is 6' high.
Let's talk about making a simple hoop coop first.
You will need:
- Pressure Treated boards for the base (based on your desired coop width and depth)
- 16'x4' Cattle Panels (2 for an 8' deep coop, 3 for a 12' deep coop, etc.)
- Cable Ties (Zip Ties) or wire
- Box of fencing staples ("U" shaped nails)
- Two Ratchet Straps
- Hardware Cloth
- Chicken Wire
- Heavy-Duty Tarp or Corrugated Roofing or Cheap Tarp + Linoleum
For ease of explanation, let's assume a 10' wide by 8' deep by 5' high coop is being built. You can use 2"x4" or 4"x4" pressure treated wood for the base. You would need two boards at 10' and two at 8' for this size.
Place two 16'x4' cattle panels flat on the ground beside each other and attach them together along the long side (we use zip ties but you can use clips or wire based upon how strong you need the structure to be).
Use t-posts temporarily set in the ground, ratchet straps or friends and push/pull the ends towards each other to bow the cattle panels upward. Ratchet straps are very helpful at this point to hold the bottom in place for you while you work. You want it to be close to 10' (or your desired width measurement) but it doesn't have to be exact just yet.
If you plan on using a tarp as a roof, you will also want to install either chicken wire or 2"x4" wire over the rest of the top to prevent raccoons and other climbing predators from chewing through the tarp to get to your chickens.
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| Hardware cloth on the sides and back. |
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| Chicken wire over the top and on the ground around the perimeter. |
For the backside, we have personally used fencing with corrugated panels secured to the wire, or plywood. The fencing is lighter and when you put on the corrugated roofing panels as a wind block, it is pretty secure. If you choose to use a tarp on the back, be sure to put a layer of hardware cloth over the entire back beneath the tarp for security.
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| On the left a tarp has been used over 2"x4" wire fencing. There is also one corrugated roof panel at the bottom (because we used a torn tarp and had an extra panel. The coop on the right has a complete back of corrugated roof panels secured to a 2"x4" wire fence. |
Another of our coops has a plywood back. (Craig's List free windows are optional.)
We have found that plastic corrugated roofing panels (run sideways starting at the bottom and working upwards) are both sturdy and long-lasting. Be sure to put in your wire anti-digging predator skirting prior to covering it though.
An 18" chicken wire skirt is added around the entire base and staked down with tent stakes. Grass will grow over this in time and hold it down for you
For the front side, we framed up a door and build in some supports. Cover these with hardware cloth also. Your door should sit off the ground and on top of the base board so it will be easy to open even in the muddy season.
We have also found that a tarp with a large piece of cheap linoleum strapped down over it with ratchet straps works well. The linoleum adds longevity and durability to the tarp and seems to weather well. Who knew?
Lastly we tried the corrugated panels. These last well and are the most durable, but they have to be attached to wood pieces on the inside, and they are more expensive. (Also, if you have really heavy turkeys, sometimes things get a bit dented...)
We then take branches or un-treated pine 2"x4" boards to use as roosts, set them on the wire of the cattle panels and zip tie them in place. In a few of our coops we have used wooden crates for the hens to use as nest boxes. They are also handy to set roosts on. You can use whatever you happen to have on hand, whether it's old furniture, barrels or cat litter buckets. Your chickens won't care.
All told, about 4-6 hours of work and a sturdy coop. Ours have been rained on, hailed on, snowed on, and sustained high winds. The panels flex which helps their stability.
It should also be noted that we put the back of our hoop coops to the direction where the winter winds come from and we leave the front of the coop uncovered all winter. Those new to chickens might feel a need to enclose the coop completely in cold weather, but DON'T! With the back and sides enclosed, the birds are protected from the wind and weather, but with the open fronts, you won't have issues with frostbite because the ventilation is so good. (Read why winter ventilation is SO important HERE.)
Simple Hoop Coop:
Sturdy Hoop Coop:
Good luck with your coops, and Happy Chickening!
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Great post! Very informative both with text and pictures. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteVery informative thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI am really impress by the way of explaining.
ReplyDeleteI had simple questions that I could find the answers to, until this article. Thanks...
ReplyDeleteThis is so cool! I'm curious how you manage your flocks breeding and non breeding areas. I've got 2 coops and would like to keep 1 rooster. I like to free range the flock as much as possible but last year I ended up with waaaaaaay too many hens hiding eggs and going broody and way too many chickens.
ReplyDeleteThis year I'm pondering... Can i have one flock without rooster as my egg flock that gets to free range... And then allow my rooster access to some of the hens occasionally, in the second coop, and keep them in. Then remove roo after he's done his thing, and keep those hens in the coop for at least 2 weeks. If they don't sit, they could then be allowed to free range. I'm thinking I'll need a 3rd coop for the roo to be in while he's not on duty... What do you think?
Cheers Vaune
Great post!! Very helpful! I cant wait to get a chance to work on this! My girls need a bigger run!
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ReplyDeleteI have been doing research on hoop coops for a few weeks. Trying to decide how to build one and what materials are needed. Originally I was building the hoop coop as a run and attaching it to our coop. But after reading your blog post here I have changed my mind. Our current coop set up is an 8x10 metal Arrow shed. I hate it. It has sliding doors. The inside frame is all metal. So you can’t really attach roost bars unless you add a wood frame. So we built a stand alone roost bar set up with 2x4s. But we have to move them out every time we clean the coop. And it’s heavy.
I’d love to section off some of our metal shed/coop and use for feed storage. But right now we don’t have enough space to do that. We have an automatic chicken door on one side and outside that is a very small rectangular run. Maybe 4’ tall and 6’ wide. We also never treated the wood we built it out of. So it’s needing to be replaced.
I think we’ll build a sturdy hoop coop and put the back side up against our metal coop so that the chickens can go in the shed at night during the winter maybe.
Thank you for your very detailed post. It has helped me plan exactly what I want to do for our girls new set up.
I'm so glad you found this helpful!
DeleteHello, I read this nice article. I think You put a best effort to write this perfect article.
ReplyDeleteI converted a metal shed into a coop as well. I made poop boards with roosts and it is super easy to clean. Each one is about 2 X 4-5 ft. They are easy to move if I want to reconfigure the space, but don't need to be moved for cleaning. They are made at a height that is easy for me to clean without any bending. The chickens love them because some like to sit on the flat part or edge, while most sit on the roost. I use either mini shavings or Sweet PDZ (Zeolite) in the boards. You can easily scoop with a kitty litter scoop. If I use Zeolite, I use a reptile enclosure scoop because it screens a lot more. If I use mini shavings, I use a kitty scoop with wide openings. I got on on Amazon that is all wire so it is mostly open and it works great. It only takes me a few minutes to clean each one. There isn't much cleaning of the floor since most of the poops are in the board and they spends most of the day outside. Some of the poop boards were made with a used table and others with a used old style low TV console. You just add a roost and 2 X 4 edge, and legs if you need to raise it. I use the TV consoles as combination nest boxes and roost/ poop boards.
ReplyDeleteGreat, the post is very complete. in my hometown, i just build simple cage and sometimes the chicken plays our neighbor house.
ReplyDeleteOurs have held up well so far. We've had straight-line winds up to 72 miles per hour and they've been fine. It helps that they have some give to them so they can bend a bit. That said, this can also depend on the materials you are using and in what direction you are using them. If you know which direction your big storms come from, make sure that all materials on that side of the coop are secured in such a way that wind can't get up under them and start tearing them apart. If you're using multiple tarps, secure the tarp that is over the top further down the wind side, and then secure the tarp on the back over the top of the edges. (I hope this is making sense.) It's fine to poke very small holes in the side areas of tarps should you need to secure overlapping pieces with zip ties.
ReplyDeleteIf you are using roofing material over the top, secure any side materials all the way up to the roofing materials on the wind side to reduce the amount of wind that can get up under the roofing materials.
We have had to replace our tarps every few years, but we've never had a problem with the coop we have with the roofing materials. I should mention that the one with roofing materials is situated so the wind hits from the side of the coop instead of the rear. The roofing materials come down the wind side about half way (and in winter we tarp off the bottom part). As long as the wind can't get up under a loose edge, you're good to go!