Quick and easy cattle panel hoola-hoop house

[Latestarter]

Hey @SunnyD Welcome back! Hope you'll stay a while and post some! Visiting every 3-4 years or so, well, we can't really get to know you THAT way! There are quite a few here now that are interested in heritage animals. Seems like that's something you're interested in. Hope to see you in the threads

 

[soarwitheagles]

And thank you babs for the tips on wood or t-posts and thank you Greybeard for the tip on the hog rings. I will definitely purchase some hog rings and the pliers and give it a try next time I need to build something like this.

I simply did not have the time to run to TS or order from Amazon...

Who knows the best deal on hog rings and hog rings pliers? Please help me order the best deal.

Rain and wind has begun here this evening. Let the tests begin!

 

[babsbag]

The wind and rain is hitting me pretty good right now too. Hope it all stays together for you and I bet you are glad that today is over. Cutting up wood is hard work.

 

[soarwitheagles]

Hope ya'll get some sunshine soon!

Hopefully next week, beginning on Tuesday we will see some sunshine Baymule. It appears to finally be a break in these "atmospherics rivers in the sky!"

BTW, we worked in the rain for most of the morning today.

A quick reminder for anyone else reading this post that was titled, "A quick and easy way to build a hoop house."

I struggled a bit with this hoop house and it was not done quick and easy. So sorry, but that's the truth!

Babs had a much quicker and easier version of the hoop house earlier on in this thread...

The wind and rain is hitting me pretty good right now too. Hope it all stays together for you and I bet you are glad that today is over. Cutting up wood is hard work.

Babs,

The dopplar radar is showing you are receiving the yellow and orange levels of rainfall right now. That can be quite strong. But this storm appears to be weaker than some of the last storms...some of the last storms were showing red and it reminded me of monsoon rains in Asia...

So soory Babs, I have some really bad news...

Remember that last storm? We had 70 mph winds in that last storm.

Well, during the storm I saw many of my empty bee boxes on the ground [as in, blown off the beehive stands]. I made a huge mistake. I simply thought that only the empty bee boxes were blown off the beehive stand.

I finally looked more carefully 1.5 days later. I felt so sad. Now I realize I should have monitored the bees much more carefully.

When I went to do my inspection I was shocked at what I found...

The high winds had actually blown off 4 of my large and healthy beehive lids...so, these hives were exposed to large amounts of rain for 1.5 days.

When I realized what had happened, I felt kind of upset too because I have worked so hard with these hives.

To be honest with you, I could not even bring myself to look inside to do a thorough inspection of these hives. I fear I may have completely lost my largest and healthiest hives.

I will do a thorough inspection as soon as the rain stops which should be Tuesday. You may want to consider ordering bees from other vendors.

I apologize and I am still shocked that the wind could actually blow off well seated, heavy duty beehive lids...

In the future, I will place either bricks or heavy pieces of concrete on my hive lids...

 

[Latestarter]

Oh man Soar... that positively sucks about your hives Really sorry that you lost them that way. I've seen quite a few folks who actually use those ratcheting tie down straps. Wind is a powerful enemy to hives, and of course once open to rain it's devastating. Hopefully all is not lost & later this spring you'll be able to re-activate those hive boxes with nucs from your other hives or swarms you're able to capture. With all this rain you've had I expect/presume that your forest is going to bloom better than you've ever witnessed. CA may have a spring/summer like they haven't seen in ages. It's hard to imagine the quantities of water that the state has received in the past several weeks.

 

[Baymule]

I am so sorry about your bees. You have been so sick at a bad time. It can't be helped and you needed to take care of YOU, but it just came at a bad time. I hope you can get back on track with your bees. I read your posts about your bees and learned so much, you are a great teacher on bees!

Eucalyptus is a great firewood? I suppose so, doesn't it have a lot of resin or oils in it? The bark reminds me of sycamore, shedding the bark and exposing the light/dark of the new bark.

As far as best deal on hog rings and pliers, I just buy mine at the feed store and make sure that I never run out. It is amazing on what I can use hog rings for. I buy them several packages at a time and they seem to get used up on a regular basis. I love hog rings!

 

[soarwitheagles]

Thank you for your kind thoughts. Yes, I will either begin to use the tie downs or use large masonry bricks. I am glad I was able to help people with their bees. Raising bees has been quite an adventure too. In February I was hoping to split hives, raise 200+ queens, and begin to sell lots of packages of bees with queens. Now my dreams may have been crushed. I will do a thorough examination Tuesday or Wednesday, once the rain has stopped to see how much damage was done...

Eucalyptus is considered to be some of the best firewood of all. I was always told that oak is the best out here in California. Then my wife and I cut 30 cords of the Eucalyptus. I was shocked at how fast it sold and how high of a price people were willing to pay for it. The part I do not like about it is when we must cut dry Eucalyptus. It dulls the chain saw blades super fast [we have already gone through 35+ chains]. When we cut the Eucalyptus when it is wet, it is a completely different story...it is like cutting through soft butter.

This year we sold cords for $280-$300 per cord. People drive all the way from Lake Tahoe to buy from us. Here is what they tell us:

Eucalyptus burns super hot.
Eucalyptus burns super clean.
Eucalyptus emits a very pleasant odor.
Eucalyptus requires at least a year to season.

We have never had a complaint selling Eucalyptus and we still have a waiting list of people that would like to purchase more. I simply have not had the time to cut more Eucalyptus. Presently, I only cut if it is an emergency.

I need to take down another 30 cords of Eucalyptus because these trees are too close to our Ag building and I feel they are a fire hazard and a danger if they fell. Now I simply need to find the time.

UPDATE: the winds have reached over 60 mph again and the hoop house barely even moves, so I suppose we have success with the hoop house.

Thank you again everyone for your great ideas and help. We appreciate you, your sharing, and your input.

 

[soarwitheagles]

Oh man Soar... that positively sucks about your hives Really sorry that you lost them that way. I've seen quite a few folks who actually use those ratcheting tie down straps. Wind is a powerful enemy to hives, and of course once open to rain it's devastating. Hopefully all is not lost & later this spring you'll be able to re-activate those hive boxes with nucs from your other hives or swarms you're able to capture. With all this rain you've had I expect/presume that your forest is going to bloom better than you've ever witnessed. CA may have a spring/summer like they haven't seen in ages. It's hard to imagine the quantities of water that the state has received in the past several weeks.

Yes, this has been a genuine bee disaster for us. I hope the rain didn't kill all the bees in those healthy hives but like you said, they are probably all dead. I will find out later this week and give an update. Eucalyptus trees here bloom every two years. But last year [their bloom year], it was incredibly dismal [less than 10% bloomed]. Hopefully they will bloom this year and we can harvest lots of Eucalyptus honey. I have seen years when the bloom was so intense that my wife and I had to wear a dust mask for a couple of weeks due to the heavy concentration of pollen in the air. The forest had so many white flowers that it appeared as snow had fallen on the trees when you looked from a distance.

You are right about the rain. For January alone we have had over 10 inches of rain. One reservoir, after three days of rain, received enough rain to supply all of Los Angeles for an entire year of water. So this is a very precious time in California. Most authorities are in agreement that Northern California is now out of the drought, whereas Southern California is still in drought.

This magnitude of rain will definitely cause a massive bloom everywhere. What a miracle. We are very, very happy about this.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm with Babs....a quick and easy sheep shelter that can withstand up to 50 mph winds without a quiver, is a simple T post, cattle panel and zip tie shelter.

Here's a small one but could very well be expanded to the any size one needs. It was put up in less than an hour and taken down in even less time.

 

[greybeard]

A quick reminder for anyone else reading this post that was titled, "A quick and easy way to build a hoop house."

I struggled a bit with this hoop house and it was not done quick and easy. So sorry, but that's the truth!

Babs had a much quicker and easier version of the hoop house earlier on in this thread...

For some of us, it is simply in our psyche or personality to tend to 'over-engineer' things, and to design for 'worst case scenario' rather than just everyday use.. I am very often guilty of this myself out of an abundance of caution after living thru so many Gulf Coast hurricanes. (I even allow for snowload on roofs even tho we haven't had more than a dusting in years)

Sorry to hear about the bees. My b-i-l had over 100 colonies at one time and I helped build some of his boxes. He had a hook & eyelet latch (like wooden screen doors had) on each side of every lid as well as a cinder block on top.