Our "Oak Abode" chicken coop

[NameIwish]

an outdoor roost that I threw together yesterday from scrap wood that I had lying around.

Please note that chickens do not have flat feet. Look to nature to see what birds roost upon. Did you say tree branches? So, turn that 2 x 4 ninety degrees - or, better yet, find yourself a limb and put it to use.

 

[Lor]

It's a lovely coop!

 

[NameIwish]

I used J-clip type cage-clips, and lots of them, to attach the chicken-wire to the hardware cloth and to attach the chicken-wire sheets to each other so the join is close and strong.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Miller+M...re+cage+clips,industrial,545&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

https://www.amazon.com/rabbitnipple...?keywords=j+clip+pliers&qid=1685808543&sr=8-3

 

[South Dakota Guy]

Please note that chickens do not have flat feet. Look to nature to see what birds roost upon. Did you say tree branches? So, turn that 2 x 4 ninety degrees - or, better yet, find yourself a limb and put it to use.

2x4 For Roost The opinions seem to vary widely on this topic. I don't know where you live or what breeds of chickens are in your flock, but our flock are all Wyandotte chickens. With the Brahma being a major gene contributor, these are large chickens. My chickens seem fine with the 2x4. They will sit down with their bodies on top of their feet while on top of the 2x4 roost. That position is going to protect their feet during deep winter. In 2013 we had 40 consecutive days of below zero temperatures so that is always on my mind when it comes to my chickens. I appreciate your input and will keep an open mind, but I am not convinced that a smaller roost or a round roost is the way to go.

 

[South Dakota Guy]

It's a lovely coop!

Thank you!

 

[South Dakota Guy]

Where The floor covering you used looks familiar. If it is the thin stuff with a grey/gray backing, you may be disappointed as -with the stuff we bought - that backing is organic paper of some sort that does not do well with moisture but gets along nicely with mildew/mold and such.

Suggest you consider FEED BAGS as they are inorganic, strong, waterproof and washable - did I mention free an colorful? If you can get te glue they use to make them, you should be able to do your floor with three bags by seaming them together. I use them in coops with smaller floor area (one bag covers it all) and simply peal them up, dump the accumulated shavings and (to quote Nancy) poo poo in a barrow or onto the ground, Hose them off and re-insert.

We did use the least expensive vinyl flooring that we found. If it doesn't hold up, then we will likely replace it when it becomes apparent that it needs it. We purchased it with the thought that it might just be a temporary solution.

 

[rosemarythyme]

So, turn that 2 x 4 ninety degrees - or, better yet, find yourself a limb and put it to use.

I'd really advise against that. Round roosts are fine as long as they're wide enough, but turning any squared off board on edge just forces the birds to rest the majority of their weight on the corner which can lead to foot problems.

 

[NameIwish]

2x4 For Roost The opinions seem to vary widely on this topic.

Right, opinions do vary. But reality, not so much. Have you ever seen a 2 x 4 going in nature? I have seen chickens in the wild, and turkeys, and ducks and geese and on an on. The point was not that "my hens like branches" or that they do not "like two by fours." Rather, that branches (like the ones in the peach tree my hens roost on every night in the Summer months (and the guinea all year 'round) are a suitable, natural and cheaper alternative to the two by fours seen in the coop pictured.

My location: Wester NC Foothills Definitely more temperate than Maine or Vermont - but nature makes chickens designed for cold weather:

11 Cold Hardy Chickens That Lay Eggs During Winter​

https://www.chickensandmore.com/cold-hardy-chickens/
https://www.chickensandmore.com/cold-hardy-chickens/

I'd really advise against that. Round roosts are fine as long as they're wide enough, but turning any squared off board on edge just forces the birds to rest the majority of their weight on the corner which can lead to foot problems.

I said "find yourself a limb and put it to use."
In my experience, over 12 years or more keeping birds for egg production in Western NC, chickens are happy with whatever branches I find and install in their coops as well as those they choose on my pear tree or peach tree where as many as nine of them spend their nights. To be fair, there is no coop with two by fours set up to compete with my ad hoc natural roosts.

 

[South Dakota Guy]

Right, opinions do vary. But reality, not so much. Have you ever seen a 2 x 4 going in nature? I have seen chickens in the wild, and turkeys, and ducks and geese and on an on. The point was not that "my hens like branches" or that they do not "like two by fours." Rather, that branches (like the ones in the peach tree my hens roost on every night in the Summer months (and the guinea all year 'round) are a suitable, natural and cheaper alternative to the two by fours seen in the coop pictured.

My location: Wester NC Foothills Definitely more temperate than Maine or Vermont - but nature makes chickens designed for cold weather:

11 Cold Hardy Chickens That Lay Eggs During Winter​

https://www.chickensandmore.com/cold-hardy-chickens/
https://www.chickensandmore.com/cold-hardy-chickens/

I said "find yourself a limb and put it to use."
In my experience, over 12 years or more keeping birds for egg production in Western NC, chickens are happy with whatever branches I find and install in their coops as well as those they choose on my pear tree or peach tree where as many as nine of them spend their nights. To be fair, there is no coop with two by fours set up to compete with my ad hoc natural roosts.
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I do respect your opinion and I know many people share it and many do not. I really don't want to turn this thread about my coop into a which is better for a roost discussion. There are already threads about that. I just want to say that my chickens spend their days standing and walking on flat ground without any harm or discomfort and I do not see how a 3.5" wide flat roost is a problem. Chickens may or may not prefer branches for roosting but from what I can see, my chickens are fine with a flat 2x4 roost. You do you and I will do me.

 

[South Dakota Guy]

I should have started this thread with the title "How a Couple of Carpentry Dummies Built a Coop" I think most people acquire building skills during their lives or they have friends or relatives who help them when they have projects requiring assistance. My wife and I are not among those people.

Step One
So we clueless people began by buying some plans for our coop. My wife has been watching YouTube videos about chickens for some time and one channel she really likes is the Oak Abode channel. If you search YouTube for Oak Abode Coop you will quickly find the video about their coop and why they built it the way that they did. We found that they had plans for sale at their ETSY shop for about $16. There must be places where you can get plans for free and many designs that might work better for you. That said, the first part of the plans was a list of the materials and quantity needed to build this coop.

Step Two
With a list of materials we needed, we had to figure out a way to get these materials from the store to our home. We reserved a pickup truck from Uhaul but when we arrived they did not have one. They did have a large cargo van which we rented for the same price and to be honest I think it worked out better than a pickup. So we headed to the hardware store and bought what we needed.

Step Three
With all of the materials at our home it was time to build the coop. Fortunately the plans started with building the base. Once we had the base of the coop built, we had a large worktable to use for cutting and assembling the pieces.

I would like to add that we purchased a small lightweight 10 inch miter saw. My wife loves that saw. It was light enough for her to set up anywhere she wanted and it made very precise cuts. It was able to cut through the 4x4 ground rated posts in one clean cut with no problems. We could have cut the 4x4 with a 7" circular saw but we would have had to rotate the 4x4 to cut all of the way through it. After the coop base was built, it was time to build the frames. We could have used a circular saw for those cuts but once again the miter saw made quick work of the frames and the precise cuts helped to keep everything sized correctly. With the exception of the base, we used 2x3s for the framing as that saved us a lot in cost (and was recommended in the plans). So we built all of the frames including the roof frame.

After we built the frames, we cut everything that we could think of and assembled as much as we could before we attached anything to the base. That included cutting the corrugated metal roof panels. One tool purchase that I made thinking it might be useful was a 4 pack of DeWalt trigger clamps.

During the construction my wife and I frequently observed how difficult different tasks would have been without them. That was $37 well spent (at Home Depot). I also would like to point out that the plans called for using decking screws for most everything. If I had an air compressor and a nail gun, I wouldn't have hesitated to use that. It certainly would have been much faster. However,since we did use screws, if we should move, we can easily disassemble the coop and move it with us. But we went with the screws and quickly found that the 2x3 studs tended to split. Luckily we have two Ryobi cordless drills so we put an 1/8" drill bit in one for drilling pilot holes and used the other with the Torx bit to screw in the screws. No more split studs.

Step Four
So up to this point, all of the pieces are assembled and it feels like the coop will never be built. Here is where things really sped up. Once we started attaching the pieces we went from just a coop base to a fully built coop very quickly.

We decided to attach the 1/2" plywood sheeting to the frame then cut out the openings. We did that by making a hole with a hole saw.

Then we used a jig saw to cut out the area that we needed. We tried to use a reciprocating saw but I didn't like the cuts it made. After that we attached the roof frame, the 1/2 inch plywood roof, the roofing paper then the metal panels to the roof. We made some mistakes along the way. Some we corrected and some we decided to just live with. We learned a lot during this process. My wife really enjoyed this project and she now has a scheme to build a playhouse in the backyard for our grandchildren. I just want to wrap by saying, if a couple of carpentry dummies like us can build a coop, then you can too. Don't waste your money on an expensive prefab coop that is inadequate for your flock. This final photo shows our prefab (we just sold it) that was advertised as good for 8 to 10 chickens compared to our homemade coop that is sized for 8 chickens.