I built two summer hoop houses. I started with a rectangular frame for the bottom made out of used wood on the farm (2x6's) nailed together at the corners. Then I bent two pig panels into an arch shape and nailed these to the inside of the rectangular frame using fencing staples. Over this I put carpenters cloth which is heavy heavy duty chicken wire. I framed a door at one end and covered the whole top with a tarp and zip ties that I can raise or lower the sides of for air. I put lawn mower wheels on one and a rope for a handle. I pull these around my yard with a lawn tractor. Works great. I wouldn't trade them for the world.
Jan 18, 2010 Rating
Cheap chicken tractors by: Avian Aqua Miser
We swear by chicken tractors, and made our most recent one for under $20.
You can see way too many pictures on our blog at www.avianaquamiser.com/tag/chicken_tractor/.
Enjoy!
http://www.waldeneffect.org/20090312t5.JPG
Jan 17, 2010 Rating
Cheap Chicken Dome by: Meg
We made a great chicken dome following the plans on this website:
http://www.milkwood.net/content/view/83/1/
We opted for the smallest size and used heavy duty polypipe for the structure. Using all new materials it cost a little over $100 to build, and is big enough to hold about 8 full sized chickens. The most expensive part was the 15 meters of mesh. If you could scrounge some secondhand you could do it cheap, as the 20 meters of polypipe only cost $38. Even that you could get for free or cheap secondhand. We also built our vege garden plots the same size so we can use the chicken dome as a chicken tractor for organic growing and pest control etc.
