[jammy]

Hi Stickywicket
Here's a pic of our coop and run for you to have a look at.  Luckily we had most of the wood and marine ply laying around in the garage (my hubby's a hoarder lol) and just ended up buying the roof (corrugated pvc) and the chicken wire.  Its very easy to clean out as it has a big opening on the side  that allows me to get to every bit of it inside and it has ventilation holes in the back panel.

If we had bought the materials I dont really think there would have been much difference price wise to buying a ready made one from ebay or somewhere, especially when you factor in the time to build but we were very impressed with ourselves for doing it!  The eglus are also really good but a little pricey imo.  Hope that helps a little

[muntjac]

nice one jammy  

[stickywicket]

Hmmm...I was complimented on my carpentry skills at school but that's going back a bit!

Like the idea of the corrugated plastic roof though.

[chickychick]

I would go for something that you can move around fairly easily, that way you can decide to put them where the sun is occasionally if that is an option somewhere in the garden and they wont completely wreck the grass where they are put cause it will get a chance to recover.

Alternatively you could do what I did and get three metal fireguards and clip em together. It makes a brilliant run for the chickens that I can fold down in minutes, I put a piece of nylon net over it and they love it for a couple of hours to graze on a fresh bit of garden and the fireguards from car boots cost me only £7 and that was for all of em.

eglus are very cute and practical for a few hens as pets for kids,  but expensive, have a look at ebay. I think the resale value should be pretty good though, so you might want to take that into consideration too.

chickens are good fun I have had mine about a month and they are really entertaining and I really got them for the eggs but am now addicted and wouldnt be without em.

[stickywicket]

Has anyone bought a coop from Westwood Pet products (their Edale model) . They are on ebay at the moment but sorry I couldn't put a link (not that computer literate yet  :?  )

I also like Flyte of Fancy website but v. expensive (though I'm pitching this to other half as birthday/Christmas present  ) Anyone used this company?

Love the comments so far

[Tom's mum]

Hi StickyWicket,
I made a big mistake buying off eBay with a limited budget and whilst the hen house and run are adequate, they are quite flimsy and we (well, my man, under my instructions!) have had to do a lot of remedial and strengthening/security work, so we may as well have built one ourselves-that will be our next project.  Also, the height of the run is only about 2ft and this really doesn't allow my chickies to stretch upwards.  Luckily, I work from home and they get a good few hours free ranging every day, but do be careful with eBay as things aren't always what they seem.   :roll:

I'm not talking about the Edale here, ours was from a different place in Wales!

[richyrich7]

It's soooo much cheaper to DIY go down to B&Q and they will even cut most of the wood for you esp the ply, so easy honestly you don't need loads of tools etc just patience and accurate measurements.

I think Jammy's is A1 kind of thing I would go for if I hadn't had the shed.

Get down to wilko's for your chicken wire it's got at least 25% off possibly 50%  

[ChickenAnn]

I've just bought a FlyteSo Fancy house (the cottage one with extra run extension).
It seems really well made and the house itself is a good size for the 4 chickies I've now got. It's super-easy to clean and well-ventilated. The nest box is a bit annoying as it doesn't have a separate hatch from the outside.
I chose the house basically because I think it's really pretty, though, and I do realise there are more practical models out there!!!
I think the run extension is a bit of a con though, as is pricey for what it is - you could just buy the wood and the mesh and make a run extension as would be dead easy to do. The house seems an OK price.
However, they delivered too many panels with mine so I've effectively got 2 run extensions instead of the one extension I ordered, which makes it fine!
The service was really good, they called to let us know that they'd packed to many panels by mistake, everything arrived when they said it would, etc.

[chickychick]

oh I just looked this up its very pretty bet it looks lovely with the chickens in.  smashing good luck getting the extra extension too  

My chickens/coop etc were my birthday present too, who wants diamonds when you can have chickens and anyway Ive got too many diamonds anyway, its a pain getting into bed at night trying to sqeeze past em all

would love to see a pic of you chicekn house with the chickens in

Can you adapt the egg box and add a little door at the back to let you get the eggs more easily? or even add a box on the side with a lid? thats what I did makes life sooo much easier

[muntjac]

getting back to the sun point ,you dont want it in full shade all day as they need to have sunlight same as other animals etc its going to be fine if they free roam and sunbathe during the day tho : :

 i love seeing a nice bird sunbathing  

[ChickenAnn]

I think I'll take your advice and alter coop so there are nest boxes on the side that I can get to separately.....I'd love to be able to post a pic of the chickens/ coop, but no digital camera!

I know what you mean re: the diamonds, particularly irritating on sunny mornings - all that sheeny-shiny-ness with a champagne hangover just isn't on.