Comments on: How To: build a Geodesic Chook Dome

By: A little detour by Milkwood Permaculture. | Australia on horse back

A little detour by Milkwood Permaculture. | Australia on horse back — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:22:54 +0000

[...] Mobile chook dome. [...]

By: Warly

Warly — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 01:29:41 +0000

Hi, I ‘m about to make dome same size as yours, did you use 20mm or 25mm pipe?

By: milkwoodkirsten

milkwoodkirsten — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 02:07:06 +0000

No worries, thanks for the update Amanda!

By: Amanda Brown

Amanda Brown — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 01:51:16 +0000

Hi,
Using your plans as a guide, we made a “10 pole” sized dome about a year ago with three variations: we used 25mm poly pipe because we already had some lying around, we drilled long bolts through for the joins after hearing some stories of glue difficulties, and we added a chicken wire “skirt” around the outside as a precaution against digging predators. It’s still going strong a year and a bit down the track.
We would not use the poly pipe again as it is simply not rigid enough – the dome bends when lifted and takes two of us to lift. We also have a freestanding perch for the same reason – the weight of our 8 chickens on a hanging perch bows the roof!
The drilled joints are great and we would do this again.
The skirt is also great as it means we can just drop concrete blocks onto it instead of pegging it down with tent pegs – this makes it much faster when moving, and my husband and I can do the move, including the tarp which is still pegged down, in under 15 minutes.
Thanks so much for sharing your plans, we’re really happy with the strength of the dome as well as the reduced wind resistance the lower profile gives during storms!

By: Eddie

Eddie — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 05:26:38 +0000

I love the idea but don’t really understand why you say it’s a more efficient use of space than a rectangular bed – circles don’t tessellate. If you want a garden bed that’s twice as big as the ground space of the dome, you’d end up with an odd figure of 8 shape, instead of a large square as you would if you used a rectangular structure.

By: Esther Diamond

Esther Diamond — Sat, 19 May 2012 11:53:45 +0000

hi kirsten,
just wondering how your chickens fare in the dome during cold weather? I’m keen on a lightweight movable chicken tractor, but we get pretty heavy frosts and low temperatures in winter (southern highlands nsw). I know it gets pretty cold out your way too so I’m wondering if you do anything special in winter in the dome?

thanks

By: Sj

Sj — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:47:48 +0000

A chicken generally needs 1 sqm each so you could actually fit 12 chickens in there but I would aim more for 6 chickens to get a good balance

By: Sj

Sj — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:07:36 +0000

How did you attach the wire? And wire is usually about 1 metre high did you wide it around horizontally or vertically?

By: Wendy

Wendy — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:42:33 +0000

I spent a long time looking at your chook dome plans, but I was intending to repurpose some damaged black dripline – not exactly easy to mark in a way that’s visible and I couldn’t find anything remotely like the glue you used. In the end I found a proper geodesic dome design much easier to get my head around, and after a failure in the first attempt – the dome was much too large for the size of pipe – the second version was a great success. Pictures and more details here … http://permaculturinginportugal.net/blog/geodesic-dome-chicken-tractor/

By: Egg Mobiles I Have Loved… « Milkwood: permaculture farming and living

Egg Mobiles I Have Loved… « Milkwood: permaculture farming and living — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:00:21 +0000

[...] a much smaller, enclosed area of grass on a daily basis, usually within a movable cage (or even a geodesic chook dome). A chicken tractor (this one seems of the most salubrious kind). Not to be confused with an egg [...]