Basic Instructions

Step One: Framing

We used treated and painted 2x6 lumber for the foundation and painted 2x4 lumber for the rest of the frame.  Note that the uprights are attached to the inside.  The area on the left will be the storage area and henhouse, the right side will be the covered run.  The frame is 5x5x10' (which means ducking to get in through the screen door).

Step Two:  Flooring and Framing the Henhouse

Next, we put polyurethaned OSB flooring in both henhouse and storage areas (each required a full sheet, boo hoo).  We framed for the window and the pophole in the henhouse, and the doors for the storage area.  We added the roof joists and stabilizing cross pieces.

The roof joists were hard to cut at the correct angle:

Step Three:  Roofing

We roofed La Cage Mahal with 7/16" OSB, metal drip edging, tar paper, then asphalt shingles and cap.  The very short roofing nails were just a hair too long.  I recommend thicker OSB or plywood.

Step 4:  Siding

The siding is 1x6" shiplap.  We should have attached it to the ends of the coop BEFORE we put the roof on, so that we could draw the angle easily with a pencil, rather than getting out the protractor and trying to calculate the angle mathematically!

 The back siding:

Step 5:  Doors and Windows, Hardware Cloth

We built the doors for the storage area and the henhouse out of 1x6" shiplap cut to the size of the opening, then we screwed scrap lumber to the back to hold it together, then we used 1x4" pine to frame the door edge and to make the diagonal cross pieces.  We hung them with galvanized exterior hinges and fastened them with hasps.  The window came from an old cabinet.  We just painted it and hung it.  We used the other window from the same cabinet to make a fixed screen door that is fastened to the frame. 

The screen doors were constructed by sandwiching hardware cloth between two overlapping 1x4" frames, then placing another 1x4 diagonally across the face for stability.

The hardware cloth enclosing the run area was nailed to the outside of the frame, then another 2x4 was placed over the nails, sandwiching it to secure against predators (including Sam, our new dog).  We will line the bottom of the run with attached, welded wire when the babies are allowed out.