MtViking- A little piece of paradise.

[MtViking]

Thought I’d share my hutches. I paid about $100 give or take for the cage wire and hardware like hinges and locks, the rest is salvaged wood from pallets and the clearance wood at the box stores that nobody wants. So all in all a really cheap investment that will last me a long time. The steel roof is just old stuff we found in a scrap pile on the property.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

They look good!

 

[Baymule]

How will you water them when winter freezes those bottles? We get VERY brief actual freezing days cold enough to freeze up the animals water, and I haul buckets of hot water to pour in their water buckets. The horse tank is 300 gallons, I make sure it is full when 20* weather is coming. I break the ice in it so they can get a drink twice a day. Just the few days to a week that I mess with frozen water containers are a pain. How do you handle water in the long winter that you have?

 

[MtViking]

I have heated water bottles for the rabbits, I hope they work as advertised, I don’t have any big live stock yet but my friends that do, use submersible tank heaters for their stock tanks, which is what I’ll use as well. When it’s below zero for multiple days even weeks warm water freezes too fast to not have some sort of heated dish. We have a heated dish for the dogs and barn cats as well and they work great.

 

[Baymule]

That makes sense. Understand.....winter for us is waaaaay different than winter for you!

I was thinking maybe a hoop coop structure for your run.

https://www.theeasygarden.com/threads/hoop-coop.18291/

I have now dragged this coop to another location. I'm going to add two more cow panels to it, then build a walk in coop, maybe 10x10 or 12x12. I don't know that this would hold up for the snow you get. Maybe a double header 2x6 the length of the run?

 

[MtViking]

That makes sense. Understand.....winter for us is waaaaay different than winter for you!

I was thinking maybe a hoop coop structure for your run.

https://www.theeasygarden.com/threads/hoop-coop.18291/

I have now dragged this coop to another location. I'm going to add two more cow panels to it, then build a walk in coop, maybe 10x10 or 12x12. I don't know that this would hold up for the snow you get. Maybe a double header 2x6 the length of the run?

I like that a lot! I think the snow would just slide right off of it. They could actually have some ground to scratch at during the winter too. And the big birds won’t be able to get to the chickens.

 

[MtViking]

I might have to go sweep it off now and again, but I have to do snow removal out there anyways so I really wouldn’t be much extra work.

 

[Baymule]

I built a hoop run at our old house, I put the beams up on blocks. It kept the beams off the ground, even treated wood rots eventually. I will retro fit the hoop coop I just showed you with blocks and I will build the new addition with blocks. This onw had hardware cloth over the top, it caught leaves and stuff. I like the tin top better with wire sides for ventilation.

 

[RollingAcres]

Your hutch setup looks nice!

submersible tank heaters for their stock tanks,

That's what we used for our cows

 

[RollingAcres]

@Baymule has very nice setups for her animals. She even has a pig palace!