Review: Omaha Chicken Coop Kit by Rugged Ranch

We have upgraded to a new chicken coop for Jurasschic Park 2.0! While we deliberated for a few months on whether to build one ourselves from scratch, hire/pay someone to do it, or get another coop kit, we found the Omaha Chicken Coop by Rugged Ranch online. I thought it was cute and well-designed but we weren’t crazy about the price.

Imagine our surprise when we find a local antique shop selling one, still in its box, for almost half the price!

So now we bring the review to you here at Real Simple Mama. We’re paying customers and want to share all the stats, loves, and hates with the Omaha Chicken Coop Kit from Rugged Ranch.

It’s true! I didn’t get anything for free for a review. As always, our content is real honest. And there might be affiliate links in this article – we appreciate you supporting our little family! Thanks!

Look at the end of the article for the box and coop dimensions, and for a full coop build review video!

We also uploaded the original build manual in case you lose your instructions, free to download!

Basic Information on the Omaha Chicken Coop Kit

The Omaha Chicken Coop Kit is made by Rugged Ranch and is a red barn style coop. It features four nesting boxes, two levels, a ramp, and five roost bars on two levels. By “two levels” I mean that the ground level is an open-air run, which features a ramp that goes up to the solid walled coop. In the coop itself are the nesting boxes and roost bars for sleeping. The coop is made from solid wood and hardware cloth. The coop comes in three large boxes (dimensions below) with most of each of the four walls already assembled, and the lower level “run” walls already assembled too.

I feel like the coop would be fine for up to 8-9 full size chickens to roost and sleep in; however, they’d have to have a separate yard or run for during the day. That first-level open space is not nearly enough! (And don’t really worry too much about the number of nesting boxes, as most chickens want to sit on a cluster of eggs and will share the same box anyway!)

The coop comes with a tray which can slide out to clean the poop from the area under the roost bars – remember that chickens poop in their sleep, hooray! – and there is a large area opposite the nesting boxes which can be used for storage or an automatic coop door motor (not included).

COOP DIMENSIONS

• Boxes (each – there are three): 62” x 36” x 5”
• Coop itself when built: 60.5″ tall x 48″ deep x 63″ wide
• Coop door openings on front and back: 34.5″
• Coop door openings on sides: 40.5″

Wanna see the build instructions from the manufacturer? Check them out here.

What We Love About the Omaha Chicken Coop Kit

I think that the Omaha chicken coop kit is really designed well and mainly for two reasons: There is ample space inside for roost bars and sleeping birds, and there are double doors on each of the four coop sides for easy cleaning and ventilation.

I appreciate the gigantic tray under the roosting bars so that I can clean chicken poop – you can either slide out the tray to clean it, or be lazy like I am and use each of the four sets of doors to clean the area out. (And just use a dollar store’s cat litter scoop to clean out the poop; I highly recommend PDZ equine litter in your roost tray.)

Like I said above, I do feel like the second level of the Omaha chicken coop kit is big enough for 8-9 full size chickens to sleep, and I do feel that it has enough nesting boxes for that size flock too (remember that chickens tend to all want to use the same one so don’t worry), but the chickens do need more space for during the day. I’d recommend building them a run or getting them a covered kennel-type building.

The ramp is designed to be durable and easy to clean, and it’s going to be easy for me to unscrew and remove if I need to spray it down or adjust it.

The interior design is done really well in regards to nesting boxes too – there are four nesting boxes on one side, and on the other side there is space for chickens to go up and down the ramp, and a storage space which can easily be blocked off for storage, or used as a large nesting box. I use pine shavings like these in my nesting boxes since it’s cheap and safe for chickens, and rarely need to add or change any of it.

I also think that the color scheme and overall exterior design is cute!

What We Don’t Love About the Omaha Chicken Coop Kit

We’ve had a couple of complaints with this coop kit since building it a month ago. (You can see our “Omaha final review” video on my YouTube channel too.)

The big issue we have had is that the coop roof is not particularly long overhanging, so that if there is a heavy rain (or rain and wind) we have gotten some water into the coop. This is a problem because your material, whether it be bedding like pine or PDZ, gets ruined. And of course we don’t want the interior wood to get wet and start warping! We have used a thin weather stripping to go around the doors, and we used an inexpensive water sealant to protect the wood. You can check out our “Omaha Coop Hacks” video on YouTube to see what we did. It wasn’t particularly time consuming nor expensive, but it was definitely a problem that we needed to solve.

I also would have loved if the roost tray had a folding leg which would come out, since the tray itself is really long and heavy. I honestly don’t pull the tray out to scoop out poop, but just use all the sets of doors to clean from different angles. It’s a bit unconventional but it works!

All of the double doors around the coop level are so fantastic and I use them every day! But I’m in south Texas and it’s getting into the 90s by the end of March. With just two open windows on the second level, and birds’ body heat, I know it’s going to get stuffy in there. I’m going to adjust the coop design a bit so that there’s more ventilation in there, but considering adding a solar fan or predator-proofing a few doors so that you can keep them open and get better air circulation if you’re in a warmer climate. That 90 degree Fahrenheit mark is the one to be wary of. (If you’re in colder weather, I do NOT recommend ever blocking up those two square windows!)

Finally, I really don’t need that extra storage/nesting space on the coop level. Sure I’ve put a few things in there, and I blocked it off with chicken wire so that the girls can’t camp out in it (aka poop all over it), but I almost wish the cutout for the ramp would have been bigger instead. I do plan to use that open space as a ventilating space in the warm weather – since it’s blocked off and a chicken can’t get in or out through it, if I find a way to tie the exterior door open, it’ll be a great way to get some extra breeze in the coop!

Through April and May 2020 we will be doing additional upgrades to the Omaha chicken coop kit, including an automatic coop door (which opens and closes with a motor and timer), a solar powered fan, and more. So be sure to check out the video below and subscribe to our YouTube channel!

For more information about this Omaha chicken coop kit, check out their website at www.RuggedRanch.net and their wood chicken coop page here.  

And here is our full review of the Omaha Chicken Coop Kit – get the tour and check it out!