Create an affordable haven for your chickens with this step-by-step DIY guide to building a chicken hoop coop.
Well (finally) here are some pictures of my hoop house! Several folks have asked me for plans but this build was done ad-hoc so I didn't really have any plans to share. So, here are some links to a few different plans for building a similar hoop house/coop: Rain Creek Pottery Hoop Coop Chicken Tractor Backyard Chickens Hoop House Whole View Farm Hoop Coop The basic idea behind pastured poultry is to move the chickens to fresh grass each day. So the pen needs to be light enough to pull with a rope by a single person or a riding lawn mower. Lots of people use a 10x10' pasture pen that is only 2 feet high. I chose a hoop house over a pasture pen because I can walk inside to change out the feed and water, catch chickens, etc. It has an 8x12' foot print and is 6' high, enough to be able to walk around inside. It is basically made of 3 "ranch panels" (4 gauge galvanized welded wire) that are pushed up into a hoop inside of the pressure treated frame. I put a heavy duty U.V. protected tarp over the back 8' leaving 4' open (covered in chicken wire) for sun and ventilation. I covered the perimeter with 4 foot high chicken wire in case the tarp rips or I want fold it up on the sides. Attaching the chicken wire was very laborious, even using wire "zip" ties. Make sure to use the black (U.V. protected) ones. The ends were the most difficult part to figure out. Chicken wire by itself is not predator proof and the ranch panels were too cumbersome (and very sharp at the ends) to use. I have been saving this piece of 3/8" ACX plywood for years and finally found a good use for it. I just tacked it in place and traced out the hoop and cut it to fit. I did not want it to become a 3 sided parachute in the wind so I put in a foot of chicken wire near the top of the back so the wind will go through it. The A-frame 2x4's are to keep the ranch panel at the peak in place and help support the plywood as well. I probably need to put some stain or paint it or it won't last very long. My son's dog "Moo Moo" (cause his coloring looks like a cow) for some perspective of the size. The door on the front is almost 3x6' and has sprung hinges (screen door style) and two locks. I purposely made it swing out so that if a predator tried to get in it couldn't push its way through. Later on I added some left over heavy wire fencing to the door and the front to beef up the chicken wire. Next time I will use plywood or 2" welded wire covered with chicken wire for the ends. LESSON LEARNED: Chicken wire sucks. Use alternatives when ever possible. Nice and cozy inside, yet some sun and lots of ventilation. I think I will add some roost bars at the back and I need to build a feed trough (maybe out of plastic rain gutter) and get some "chicken nipples" for a 5 gallon water bucket. I will hang the water bucket from the peak near the door to make it easy to change out. And the feed troughs will probably sit on the corner braces so that they move with the house when I pull it to fresh grass each day. Turns out that my new neighbor across the street raises Black and Blue Copper Marans (very dark brown eggs) and Ameraucana (blue Easter Eggers) on his small family farm (www.rolofarms.com) and is making some decent money at it selling chicks this spring. He asked me to build him one or two of these hoop houses for his extra cockerels. I ended up using 5mm under-layment plywood on both ends but had to primer seal it because it wasn't exterior grade plywood. Here it is just before I put the tarp on. Its a little different but probably stronger than mine.
Thinking of building your very own Hoop Coop but don't know where to start? Well, you're at the right place because we've selected 10 top-rated Hoop Coops to give you some inspiration. Hoop Coops are basically big movable (sometimes permanent)...
Like every good (or bad?) idea, first you need a plan. I had come across a couple of coop hoop building plans during one of my chicken resea...
Our latest chicken coop is a hoop house style made from an old greenhouse frame, with hog panel sides and salvaged tin for the front and back wall. We wrap it in 9 mil plastic for weather proofing. There are runner boards (or skids) along the bottom on both long sides. This means we can drag it around the field as needed–something we do weekly. That also gives us something to fasten the plastic to in the winter. At the top of the hog panel wall on each side are … Continue Reading...
Chicken Tractor Hoop House *altered from one found on backyard chickens: Barred Babies made a post back in 2012 of a house that they made from a plan they saw elsewhere as well-thanks for the outline for my hoop house!!!!* Here is a list of...
This post is long and long overdue. I built a chicken tractor over the spring. What's a chicken tractor you ask? Well that depends on if you ask a green tractor chicken or a red tractor chicken... Most people look at me funny when I say I have a chicken tractor. I think they imagine a dozen chickens tethered to a plow or something. A select few probably imagine an actual chicken driving a tractor. If you fall into the latter camp, I would love to know what you think a cock fight is. Leave a comment down below. A chicken tractor is simply a chicken coop and run that can be moved. Most people build the tractor with the bottom open to the grass and move it every couple days. This allows the chickens to graze fresh pasture and bugs while being protected from predators. I bought three 4 ft x 16 ft cattle panels from our local agriculture store. I am surprised I didn't get pulled over driving like this. Make sure you have some pads and good ratchet straps if you are going to attempt something like this. DISCLAIMER: I built this chicken tractor too heavy and it is a pain to move. If you are going to follow the design in this blog you should seriously consider moving it with a riding mower, instead of by hand. Material list: ( I am sure I am missing something, but this should be most of the supplies used.) 3 - 4ft x 16ft cattle panels. 2 - Pressure treated 12ft 2x4's. 2 - Pressure treated 8ft 2x4's. A lot of untreated 2x4's. I seriously went back twice to get more. Maybe a dozen or so. 1 - 4ft x 8ft x 1/2 inch plywood. 3 - 4ft x 8ft x 1/4 inch plywood. 3 rolls of 25ft hardware cloth with 1/2 inch squares. 2 rolls of 25ft chicken wire. 3 - 2ft x 8ft galvanized steel corrugated metal roofing sheets. 1 Box of "U" Grip-Rite staples. 1 Box of self-tapping metal screws. 1 Box of neoprene washers for self-tapping screws. 1 Box of exterior screws. 8 - 6 inch lag bolts with washers and nuts. Metal cutting blade for circular saw. Spool of galvanized wire. Exterior paint. Ratchet straps Various power tools. Everything I read about building chicken tractors said "DO NOT BUILD IT TOO HEAVY". I figured I could build the tractor on sleds and pull it around the yard with no problem. Boy was I wrong. If you actually keep the finished weight of your tractor manageable, you could move it around the yard on sleds. Before I put the coop in, I could pull it around easily by hand. Once you have the ends of your 12ft 2x4's rounded off, you can now attach the cattle panels. I overlapped the panels to fit inside the runner boards.You can make your tractor longer or shorter than this, its up to you. I used Grip-Rite staples to attach the cattle panels to the 2x4's. I ended up going back and putting two more staples in each square. I measured half way down the 2x4 and lined the cattle panel up so it is in the center of the 2x4. You will want some help bending the cattle panels. Once I had them in a "U", I used ratchet straps to hold it in place. I then attached the 8ft 2x4's to hold it together. Make sure you have the sides you stapled the cattle panels to, facing in. You don't want the panels pushing out against the staples on the outside. I used two, 6 inch lag bolts on each corner. Notice I cut out a 1 1/2 inch section on the 8ft 2x4's , leaving a 1/2 inch on the top. This is so when you move the tractor, the front and back boards are not dragging on the ground. Make sure you do this to both sides on the front and back 8ft 2x4's. Here is the frame all bolted together. At this point it was easy to move around on the sleds. If you didn't want a coop in your tractor, I think you could move this by hand pretty easily, even once all the hardware cloth and chicken wire is attached. Here is my solution to crafty critters like racoons. Racoons have been known to figure out slide locks and other closing mechanisms. To my knowledge, they haven't figured out carabiners yet. I will let you know if they do. One of the hardest parts of building the tractor was cutting the plywood to fit on the ends of the coop. I cut it perfectly round, then had to adjust it multiple times to get it to fit. An easy way to get a perfect half circle is to tie a string the length of the radius of the half circle you want, to a pencil. Place the open end of the string in the middle of your board and pull the string taut. Move the pencil to the left and right until you have your half circle drawn. I spent a lot of time "shaving" off wood to get the ends of the coop to fit. I didn't want to go to far, you can't add wood back on, so I had to cut a little, go check the fit, and cut some more. You can use whatever you want for a roof. I chose metal for longevity and I think it looks cool. I bought a metal cutting blade for my circular saw and cut these 8 ft galvanized panels in half. I then screwed them together using self driving metal screws with water tight washers. I overlapped each panel so water will run down the outside and not leak in. Make sure the overlaps are going the right way when you put the roof on. Here is a close up of a self driving screw with rubber / metal washer. Buy a magnetic bit for your drill, it will be worth every penny. You should end up with something like this. Some people use plastic tarps for chicken tractor roofs. That would make a much lighter roof, but it would need to be replaced every couple years or so. I ripped a lot of 2x4's to make this tractor. I attached the roof to three ripped 2x4's that I ran at the height I wanted the bottom of the coop to be. I then screwed the roof into more ripped 2x4's along the inside of the roof. I off set these in about 2 inches on each side. I used these to attach the front and back of the coop walls. The floor of the coop is then screwed into the ripped 2x4's on the bottom. You want to use the 1/2 inch plywood for the floor of the coop. You will want to do most of your interior work on the coop before you attach the final wall. In my attempt to keep the weight of the chicken tractor down, I used very thin plywood and ripped a bunch of 2x4's to build the nest boxes. I ended up going with 6 nest boxes for my 16 laying hens. Each box is approximately 12 inch x 12 inch at the opening with head room once they step into the box. I designed a small incline you can see in this pic on the bottom of the nest boxes. This will hopefully make the eggs roll back to the collection door. Here I am installing the nest boxes. I ran some more ripped 2x4's on the floor of the coop to screw the front and back wall into. Make sure these are set back as far as the ripped 2x4's the roof is screwed into so the walls fit straight. The nest box is screwed into the ripped 2x4 in the back. I had to put another ripped 2x4 under the front of the nest box to keep my slope. Make sure your nest box roof has a steep pitch on it, or your chickens will hang out on top of it. Dara and my sister helped attach the hardware cloth and chicken wire to the cattle panels. You can use plastic zip ties for this if you want. I opted to go with a more permanent solution and used galvanized wire. Make sure you attach the hardware cloth securely and not allow any part of it to be able to be pulled away from the cattle panels. Critters that want to eat your chickens are diligent and crafty. I decided to go up the cattle panels 4 ft with hardware cloth. I used chicken wire, which is cheaper, to cover the top. The main reason I chose hardware cloth is; raccoons have been known to put their arm through chicken wire and kill chickens if they get too close to the wire. If a raccoon climbed the hardware cloth to put his arm into the chicken wire, he would not be able to grab any chickens. Here is the interior of the coop all finished. I put a temporary board over the entrances to the next boxes. If you are raising your birds from chicks, you want to keep them out of the next boxes until they are ready to lay. Once I attached the front coop wall, I cut out this entrance and used a larger piece of plywood as a door. I want to replace it with plexiglass one day so I can spy on them. You can see the hinge and door on the bottom right of the pic. I harvested some saplings for the roosts. You want them to be about 2 inches wide. Because I made the coop to heavy to pull on the sleds, I decided I would put wheels on it to move it. Another mistake. Drilling through 1/4 inch steel is hard, I went through 4 bits drilling all the holes. The wheels are on the bottom of the steel bars. The holes above them are where they get attached to the tractor. This creates an offset so when you lift the steel bar handle, the coop raises off the ground about a foot. In principle, this is a great idea. When I actually tried to move the coop, it wouldn't budge. The wheels are to small and narrow for all the weight of the tractor. I plan on taking these off of the chicken tractor and using them on a much lighter tractor for broiler birds next year. Sorry about the bad photos, I can only move the tractor at night when the chickens have gone up to roost. This pic shows how the wheels raise the tractor off of the ground. I have a small hole drilled in the steel bar where that piece of 2x4 is. Once I have the bar perpendicular to the ground, I put a nail through the bar and into the 2x4 to hold it in place. The solution I finally came up with to move this beast was to use the wheels to raise the tractor off of the ground, and then lay 3 inch PVC pipes under it. The tractor is movable at this point. I am not saying it is easy, just movable. You have to stop after you pull the tractor over the PVC and reposition the PVC to move the tractor again. A real pain in the cloaca. Here is the tractor all done except for painting the coop walls. I moved it around the yard every three days or so for about 3 months. A post coming soon will explain why I stopped moving it and what I did with it. Learn from my mistakes and either use these plans to make a stationary coop, or build a lighter version that can be moved by hand. If you have a lawn tractor you may be able to move a coop like this. Hope this helps. Leave a comment if you have any questions or if I left something out you would like to know about.
Have you had the Chicken Addiction kick in? Have you found you have more chickens than coop?Are you looking for a quick, easy and inexpensive coop option? Please allow us to introduce you to the Hoop Coop. While not the cutest coop on the block (or completely HOA friendly), this 8'x10' (or larger) coop option can usually be built in 1 - 2 days and for less than $500! 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? The back view of our flight-pens for chickens, turkeys and peafowl. 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. 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. This old coop is still predator proof. Now let's talk building! 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. As the cattle panels are 4' wide, you can make your coop as deep as you like simply by zip tying or wiring more panels together. With one cattle panel, you could have a 10' wide by 5' high by 4' deep coop. With 2 panels, the coop would be 8' deep, and so-on. 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). Next, place one 8' board underneath one end and affix the panels to to the board (we use fencing staples). Make sure it is relatively straight as you do this. Then, repeat for the opposite side. Now, this is the tricky part. You'll need to roll the whole thing over without putting a crimp in the cattle panels, and lay it close to where the coop is going. 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. Position one of your 10' pieces of pressure treated wood along what will be the front and put the screws in from the front into one of your side pieces. Repeat on the other side. Now, go to the back of your bowed panel and attach that board. Once attached, you can release your straps and you now have a 10'x8'x5'(ish) coop. At this point you will want to secure 30" high (or higher), 1/4" hardware cloth on the sides and back of your hoop to prevent weasels, stoats. mink and other small predators from inviting themselves in. 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. Hardware cloth on the sides and back. 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. 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. Now for the roof. We have tried several different methods. Our first hoop coop had plastic sheeting and tarp over it. This is a great solution for those on a tight budget, but tarps don't last more than a season or two. 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! *
Aart's Hoop Coop / Chicken Tractor I've always been intrigued by the livestock panels as a structural material for a coop, and love the curved Quonset hut type imagery. Also like the idea of a chicken tractor to spread their industry and...
Have to share my husband's coop design: Pallets, cattle and horse panels, plywood, old pool cover tarp, and compost . . . Setting the posts and pallets. The entire structure is 40 feet long x 8 feet wide. 20 x 8 is the enclosed coop...
Hoop house plans free here. Click for plans, detailed assembly instructions, supplier list and inspiration. It's like moving your garden 500 miles south
Well (finally) here are some pictures of my hoop house! Several folks have asked me for plans but this build was done ad-hoc so I didn't really have any plans to share. So, here are some links to a few different plans for building a similar hoop house/coop: Rain Creek Pottery Hoop Coop Chicken Tractor Backyard Chickens Hoop House Whole View Farm Hoop Coop The basic idea behind pastured poultry is to move the chickens to fresh grass each day. So the pen needs to be light enough to pull with a rope by a single person or a riding lawn mower. Lots of people use a 10x10' pasture pen that is only 2 feet high. I chose a hoop house over a pasture pen because I can walk inside to change out the feed and water, catch chickens, etc. It has an 8x12' foot print and is 6' high, enough to be able to walk around inside. It is basically made of 3 "ranch panels" (4 gauge galvanized welded wire) that are pushed up into a hoop inside of the pressure treated frame. I put a heavy duty U.V. protected tarp over the back 8' leaving 4' open (covered in chicken wire) for sun and ventilation. I covered the perimeter with 4 foot high chicken wire in case the tarp rips or I want fold it up on the sides. Attaching the chicken wire was very laborious, even using wire "zip" ties. Make sure to use the black (U.V. protected) ones. The ends were the most difficult part to figure out. Chicken wire by itself is not predator proof and the ranch panels were too cumbersome (and very sharp at the ends) to use. I have been saving this piece of 3/8" ACX plywood for years and finally found a good use for it. I just tacked it in place and traced out the hoop and cut it to fit. I did not want it to become a 3 sided parachute in the wind so I put in a foot of chicken wire near the top of the back so the wind will go through it. The A-frame 2x4's are to keep the ranch panel at the peak in place and help support the plywood as well. I probably need to put some stain or paint it or it won't last very long. My son's dog "Moo Moo" (cause his coloring looks like a cow) for some perspective of the size. The door on the front is almost 3x6' and has sprung hinges (screen door style) and two locks. I purposely made it swing out so that if a predator tried to get in it couldn't push its way through. Later on I added some left over heavy wire fencing to the door and the front to beef up the chicken wire. Next time I will use plywood or 2" welded wire covered with chicken wire for the ends. LESSON LEARNED: Chicken wire sucks. Use alternatives when ever possible. Nice and cozy inside, yet some sun and lots of ventilation. I think I will add some roost bars at the back and I need to build a feed trough (maybe out of plastic rain gutter) and get some "chicken nipples" for a 5 gallon water bucket. I will hang the water bucket from the peak near the door to make it easy to change out. And the feed troughs will probably sit on the corner braces so that they move with the house when I pull it to fresh grass each day. Turns out that my new neighbor across the street raises Black and Blue Copper Marans (very dark brown eggs) and Ameraucana (blue Easter Eggers) on his small family farm (www.rolofarms.com) and is making some decent money at it selling chicks this spring. He asked me to build him one or two of these hoop houses for his extra cockerels. I ended up using 5mm under-layment plywood on both ends but had to primer seal it because it wasn't exterior grade plywood. Here it is just before I put the tarp on. Its a little different but probably stronger than mine.
We first began to build the hoop house for more tender plants to grow in, but when we got all our chicks we looked at this space and dec...
Our latest chicken coop is a hoop house style made from an old greenhouse frame, with hog panel sides and salvaged tin for the front and back wall. We wrap it in 9 mil plastic for weather proofing. There are runner boards (or skids) along the bottom on both long sides. This means we can drag it around the field as needed–something we do weekly. That also gives us something to fasten the plastic to in the winter. At the top of the hog panel wall on each side are … Continue Reading...
