Easy and Inexpensive Run & Coop Ideas?

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@aart and @Blooie, thinking now, I believe you two are correct when you say cheap usually isn't safe. I'm not necessarily looking for cheap so much as easy. Blooie, where did you get your cattle panels, I think I'll build an arch-like structure as well. It sounds affordable, quick, and safe!

@dustcover, Nice coop! The pictures really help to illustrate the process of the build. The pallets are a good idea.
 
@zackcrack, pictures of my Pallet Palace are on the way.
In the meantime, let me tell you all about it. We built it when I realized how big my Orpingtons were going to get. I needed something cheap (read: practically free) and fast as my poor husband had poured his heart and soul into building me a fleet of tractors, only to realize each one can hold, at MOST, four average sized birds. My Orps are turning out to be, well, giants.
The only thing we paid for was the wire and the tarp. Everything else, even their big community nest box, was free from a local company.
Yes, you have to crouch when you're inside it but I am young and strong and do yoga daily, so no biggie :)
My Orpingtons refuse to climb a ladder or spend any time off the ground. The nest box was originally elevated but they refused to get in it so now it sits on the ground. Weirdos.
 
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zackcrack said:
@aart and @Blooie, thinking now, I believe you two are correct when you say cheap usually isn't safe. I'm not necessarily looking for cheap so much as easy. Blooie, where did you get your cattle panels, I think I'll build an arch-like structure as well. It sounds affordable, quick, and safe!

@dustcover, Nice coop! The pictures really help to illustrate the process of the build. The pallets are a good idea.
Click to expand...
Not Blooie but.....Livestock panels are available in several different heights with several different rod spacings at about any farm store like TSC. Got to TSC's website to see the different heights offered.

One of the main difficulties of livestock panels is that they are 16' long and can be hard to transport unless you have decent sized trailer. I was lucky in that I bought mine used from one of the local mill employees, he has access to a 16' long trailer and delivered them. I have seen people bend and strap them into a full size pickup bed....but you don't want to bend them far enough to kink them or they wont make a nice smooth 'hoop'. They weight about 40lbs a piece and it's best to have 2 people to handle them due to their length.
 
zackcrack said:
@aart and @Blooie, thinking now, I believe you two are correct when you say cheap usually isn't safe. I'm not necessarily looking for cheap so much as easy. Blooie, where did you get your cattle panels, I think I'll build an arch-like structure as well. It sounds affordable, quick, and safe!

@dustcover, Nice coop! The pictures really help to illustrate the process of the build. The pallets are a good idea.
Click to expand...
Almost any feed or farm store has them, zackcrack. I got some of mine at Tractor Supply and some at Lintons Big R, a relatively local place. They ran about $20.00 each, give or take a buck, and really the hardest part for us was getting them the 100 miles from Billings to our place. We did put them in a full sized pickup bed because we don't have a trailer, and we arched them from one side of the bed to the other, then tied them down well. No problems. After that it was all an easy piece of cake! So figure if you make a 3 panel run like we started with, about $60.00 for the panels. I can't tell you how much the steel t-posts would have been because they were leftover from a project Ken's aunt and uncle did when they lived here, and that was 20 years ago, but I don't imagine they are that much.

Don't forget some kind of predator protection! Our dog Molly tried to dig under the run and hit the hardware cloth apron. She broke and bloodied a toenail and never tried it again! And the chicken wire, while not ideal predator protection by itself, does keep out overhead predators and closes up the big spaces in the cattle panels.

@aart I really need to pay more attention to that "new post" dealyflopper at the bottom of the screen!
wink.png
 
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hahaha cross post!

Eh @Blooie <shrugs> it's all good, we both had/have slightly different things to offer.
 
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I woke everyone up from a nap to take this picture of their big ol' party time next box. Those birds are barely four months old. Chesticles on the right is my rooster. I bet he weighs 7 or 8 pounds already, maybe more. As mentioned in a previous post, this bunch refuses to leave the ground and likes to pile together to sleep.
 

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