Our "Oak Abode" chicken coop

[GCrumb]

J-clip. J-clip pliers. Closed j-clip -- you capture strands of mesh from the sheets you want to join and close the clip to a circle.

Sometimes the wires slip out as you're closing it and then you just have this useless loop, which you drop and then have to hunt for 'cause if a chicken swallows it that's no good.

 

[arizona_chicken_noob]

Almost no carpentry experience? You did fantastic! So impressive!

 

[Niteeyes]

Your coop came out great! I got the same plans, they were pretty easy to follow and worth the price. I modified the nesting box, moved the chicken door location and deleted the water box. I think the plans give you a lot of flexibility. I like the idea of the linoleum floor. I thought about doing that but, like you, I spent so much on materials already and I knew I was going to have to spend more on materials for the run ( I'm working on that now).
I closed off the nesting box section with cardboard to keep the chickens out of it until they are old enough to start laying. I don't want them to sleep in the boxes or poop in it.

 

[South Dakota Guy]

Gotta admit I was nervous when you said you bought plans off Etsy but this is one of the better layouts I've seen for sure. Generous ventilation up high, roost and nest placement look reasonable. Good job!

Thank you! We are really new to raising chickens but this design made sense to us for where we live and with the restrictions for our location. We plan to add an automatic feeder made from either 3 or 4 inch pvc pipe and mount it inside to the side of the coop on the nest box side. That way when it is really cold our chickens won’t have to go outside if they don’t want to. It shouldn’t take up much floor space. That was one reason I really liked the water box feature. If the water is in the middle of the floor it uses up valuable space, gets bedding kicked into it and gets bumped by the chickens which causes it to spill. We know that moisture is the enemy of the coop so the water box solves a lot of problems. Our chickens just moved into it and seem to love the run but didn’t want to enter the coop. The problem was that the coop entrance ladder was too slippery for them. We just cut up some roofing shingles and stapled them between the ladder rungs for better traction. In less than five minutes they were all going up and down the ladder so apparently it was important for them to feel comfortable on the ladder.

 

[TwoCrows]

Very nice!

 

[aart]

The problem was that the coop entrance ladder was too slippery for them.

It's also rather steep.
Stick a concrete block under the low end to reduce the angle and keep bottom f ramp from rotting as quickly.

That was one reason I really liked the water box feature.

What kind of waterer is in that box?

 

[South Dakota Guy]

Your coop came out great! I got the same plans, they were pretty easy to follow and worth the price. I modified the nesting box, moved the chicken door location and deleted the water box. I think the plans give you a lot of flexibility. I like the idea of the linoleum floor. I thought about doing that but, like you, I spent so much on materials already and I knew I was going to have to spend more on materials for the run ( I'm working on that now).
I closed off the nesting box section with cardboard to keep the chickens out of it until they are old enough to start laying. I don't want them to sleep in the boxes or poop in it.

We moved the chicken door from the left to the right. We just liked that better. We also reversed the slope of the roof to protect the chickens from the colder winter winds. My wife is only 5ft 2in so we had to lower the nesting box a little. It was either that or build steps to it for her.

 

[aart]

My wife is only 5ft 2in so we had to lower the nesting box a little. It was either that or build steps to it for her.

Just as well, better that it's lower than the design apparently suggests.

Some tips abut heights:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/coop-stack-up-how-high-stuff-works-well.73427/

 

[QODTMWTD]

That's spectacular. I love the flooring you used in the coop.

As for securing your run, when we did ours I couldn't stand the thought of trying to dig deep enough to bury hardware cloth. We had a bunch of unused metal bird spikes lying around, though. We'd bought them to keep swallows away from the houses, but that was a big fail. I screwed them as close as possible to the bottom 2 x 4 of the run so the spikes would deter anything trying to nose around the bottom looking for an ingress. Your application doesn't have 2 x 4s, obviously, but wire or tie wraps might work to secure spike strips parallel to the bottom tube. They're very light and wouldn't add much weight.

 

[South Dakota Guy]

We were thinking about doing this coop. Did you also modify the floor for a tray clean out method? The reason I ask is it looks like under your main access door, there's a board/tray that might slide. If so, could you tell us more about that please?

We didn't incorporate a slide for the floor. We did put some cheap linoleum flooring down over the plywood floor. So far it seems to be holding up well. We are using the deep litter method, so we only plan on cleaning out once or twice a year. When we bought our house the previous owners left behind something I can only describe as a snow rake. It also has a handle extension. We plan on using that to pull the pine shavings out of the door and into a wagon we have. So far we are really happy with our coop. One change I would recommend is to make the roost moveable so in the warm months the chickens can sit up high and can take advantage of the breeze coming in. They also enjoy looking outside.