Do horse panels bend as easily as cattle panels? Or at least easy enough to make a hoop coop? Looking at my local TSC, the horse panels are 5' x 16' vs cattle panels which are 50" x 16'. While the horse panels are twice the price of the cattle panels, they also have 2"x4" holes, eliminating the step (and time and cost) of wrapping the cattle panels in welded wire, and giving me an extra 20" of length to my coop. Eliminating the added cost of the welded wire brings the cost of the horse panels within $60 of the cattle panel method, which might be worth the savings of time and annoyance of dealing with adding second layer of wire. But only if those horse panels will bend easily enough to make a hoop coop...
Do horse panels bend as easily as cattle panels? Or at least easy enough to make a hoop coop? Looking at my local TSC, the horse panels are 5' x 16' vs cattle panels which are 50" x 16'.
When I look at TSC's website, I see they list the wire gauge for most of the panels.
The cattle panels seem to be made of 4 gauge wire, and the horse panels of 6 gauge wire.
(Smaller number is thicker, stronger wire.)
Of course, you should check the descriptions for the ones you would actually buy, rather than just taking my word for it-- it might be different at one store or another, or might change with time.
Will they let you try to bend one before you buy? Or maybe you can buy one, try to bend it, and then return it if you cannot bend it? (As in, try bending before you even leave the lot.)
2"x4" holes, eliminating the step (and time and cost) of wrapping the cattle panels in welded wire
That hole size will keep chickens in and dogs out, but some predators can reach right through that size hole to grab a chicken. So you might still need a layer of hardware cloth.