Homemade Portable Livestock Shelter

A plastic livestock shelter can be a simple home for chickens or other livestock.

If you need a livestock shelter that you can move from place to place, you will want something that doesn't weigh much and is easy to set up and take down. If you need your shelter primarily to keep out rain and wind, then the easiest thing to do is to build a simple shelter using heavy weight plastic and PVC piping. These shelters take a short time to build, and the materials are readily available at hardware stores. The following instructions will show you how to create a shelter that is 8 feet long, 8 feet wide and about 8 feet tall.

Things You'll Need

• 6, 3-foot reinforcing bars
• 3/4-inch PVC piping - 11, 8-foot pieces
• 4, three-way PVC connectors with 3/4-inch opening
• 2, four-way PVC connectors with 3/4-inch opening
• Hand saw
• Roll of heavyweight greenhouse plastic
• 2, 2-inch x 4-inch boards, 8 feet long
• Scissors
• Staple gun

Instructions

1. Hammer four reinforcing bars into the ground, creating an 8-foot-by-8-foot square. Hammer each bar into the ground so that about half of the bar sticks up. Determine which side will be the opening of your structure, and then hammer two more bars into the ground in the middle of each side.

2. Using your hand saw, cut 11 pieces of PVC into 8-foot pieces, or have your hardware store cut them for you.

3. Place one cut piece of PVC onto each of the reinforcing bars that are in the ground, sticking straight up. Attach a three-way connector to the top of each corner piece. Slide a four-way connector onto the middle of the two center pieces of PVC, and connect the front, middle and back of one side by joining each of the connectors with a piece of 8-foot PVC. Repeat for the other side.

4. Place another piece of PVC on the top front, middle and back of the structure, sliding the front and back pieces into the three-way connectors, and the middle piece into the four-way connector. This should complete the structural component of your new shelter. With everything connected, you should have the shell of a structure that you can now cover.

5. Unroll your greenhouse plastic so that at least 25 feet is off the roll. With the help of another person, pull the 25-foot piece (this can be still attached to the rest of the roll for now) over the sides of the structure, leaving the back and front open. On the side not attached to the roll, lay an 8-foot, 2-inch x 4-inch board on the ground. Lay the end of your plastic on the 2-inch x 4-inch board and staple it to the board. Roll the board over so that the staples are on the bottom side, and then position the board snug against the PVC piping. On the other wall, cut the plastic to size and staple it to another piece of 2-inch x 4-inch board. If your piece of plastic is wider than 8 feet, cut it to size.

   You now have a structure with walls and a roof. If you want to add a back wall, cut a piece of plastic to size and staple it to the PVC piping, or drape it over the front and back as you did with the side walls.

Tips & Warnings

• When you want to move the shelter, simply lift the 2-inch x 4-inch boards and pull the plastic off the shelter. Fold the plastic, then disassemble the PVC structure by pulling each pipe off the connectors.

• If you are dealing with heavy winds, consider using some clamps on the sides to hold the plastic to the PVC piping. Snap clamps can also be used to attach your back and front walls to the PVC piping. (see Reference #1)

• You can also purchase custom-fit tarp sides for your shelter with grommets that allow you to bungee the tarp to the shelter.

References

• Greenhouse Megastore: Do-It-Yourself Accessories