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Thank you!I know Oak Abode and the coop plans you followed. You did a splendid job. It looks great!
Just as well, better that it's lower than the design apparently suggests.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.
Well done you two! This looks great! Sounds like your chickens are very happy with their new home. They should be!Oak Abode Coop
My wife and I just finished building our chicken coop and we are rather proud of ourselves. We have almost no carpentry experience, so it was quite the challenge for us. We saw this coop on YouTube and I have posted the link above. We live in South Dakota in a city. so we are operating under some restrictions. We are allowed to have no more than 6 hens and no roosters. The coop should be no larger than 30 sq ft and the run should be no larger than 60 sq ft. We purchased the plans for the coop from Oak Abode's ETSY shop. This coop is slightly larger than the allowed size at 32 sq ft. This is because plywood and studs come in 8 ft sections. I could have modified it to 30 sq ft but I am hoping no one from the city shows up with a tape measure. We liked the raised design because it allows the chickens to have a shaded and protected area and it adds a stealthy extra 32 sq ft to the size of our run (which is already accounted for by the coop). We purchased a cheap metal run on Amazon that is 6.6 ft by 10 ft. This gives our chickens 66 sq ft + 32 sq ft =96 sq ft of run space for 16 sq ft per bird. The coop provides 5+ sq ft per bird. We enclosed the underneath of the coop with hardware cloth. Unfortunately, our bargain run is only enclosed in chicken wire but we know the risks. We live in the city and have a 6ft privacy fence for our backyard. The only predators I have seen are a neighbors cat, hawks and the occasional bald eagle which shouldn't penetrate the chicken wire. The designers of the coop live in Wisconsin which has similar weather to us. Summers are short and mild and winter is long and brutal. In winter we will most likely wrap the run in a tarp or some kind of plastic sheeting to minimize wind and snow exposure to our flock. We have 3 silver laced Wyandot hens aged 9 weeks and 3 gold laced Wyandotte chickens aged 15 and 10 weeks. We chose them because they are known to be cold hardy. Here are photos of the finished coop. If there is an interest, I will post photos we took during various stages of construction.
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Thanks! They seem to enjoy the coop and the run. I think this weekend I might post some pictures of the coop during construction. I am sure that there are other people without carpentry skills that need to be shown that they can build their own coops instead of wasting money on a inadequate prefab coop, like we did.Well done you two! This looks great! Sounds like your chickens are very happy with their new home. They should be!
I forgot to include the interior photo. Our nesting box is split into two nesting areas. The small protrusion on the end of the coop holds our heated water container. I will need to add a hole for an extension cord before winter sets in. We wanted to put the water above the bedding to keep it clean. The roosting bar is set to 24 inches below the ventilation openings to keep the flock out the wind during the winter. I am considering putting a higher summer roost in where the flock can get some direct breeze and also look outside. The low slope of the roof in on the north side of the coop. Right now the space between the rafters is open. I will add hardware cloth soon but I am toying with the idea of closing that area and the west side vent during the winter. Our prevailing winter winds are from the west, northwest and north.
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Oak Abode Coop he coop plans from ETSY shop. $18.29
https://www.amazon.com/?tag=backy-20 This link does not work - pages does not show the pen enclosure, just a list of stuff.