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| 4 cattle panels, 50" x 16' $19.99 each at TSC |
More hoop coops would be ideal. I priced out the difference between building
one the way I did my
brooder coop, based on a pvc pipe framework and one made with cattle panels. The cattle panels won hands down for cost.
So off I went to Tractor Supply Company and bought four of them, 50 inches
tall and 16 feet long.
I still had some 2x6 my friends gave me. Of course none were 16 feet long so
I doubled them up until they were that long and gave them two coats of
exterior paint. (Ace special oops, $5 a gallon). I painted some of my tool
handles while I was at it.
And worked a bit trying to level up the area I planned to put the new coop.
Then I drug the panels up and used heavy fence staples to fasten the panels
to the 2x6s.
Now I had a real dilemma. Ideally the panels should be inside the frame
work, so that under tension they would not pop the staples loose. Had I used
a single 2x6 on each side I might could have flipped it over myself. But
with them doubled I was having a hard time. After waiting three days for
help that never materialized I figured out a way to do it myself.
I used ratchet straps to start bending the panels over. Yup I know it's
upside down right now...
I just kept tightening straps and taking up slack until I got to this point.
Then I drug the boards around to get to this point.
Some pushing and pulling and it's sort of in the right place. The end
boards painted and screwed into place.
It's *almost* level, slightly out of square and the end framing is started.
Maybe I'll get to work on it some more next weekend.
I use the hog panels with 4x4 squares, still 4 x 16. I'm using them as lattice inserted into wood and galvanized tin fencing. When I lived in San Antonio, Gardenwille used to sell tomato cages very similar to yours, except the edge squares were cut in half and rounded into a circle and each panels circles were brought together with a 18 guage wire going down the center of the side circles to hold together.cattle panels I bought for of them and have had them for years and are still in great shape. They fold into one piece for storage.
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