[ANHBUC]

I have ordered the walk-in run and extension from Omlet. I haven't told the OH yet (he works away) and it's our holiday money but I researched wire, wood etc (he made the 3x1m run joined on to the Eglu run) and it would cost over £200 to make a basic walk-in run and he's now got no time to make it.
Delivery on Monday so if the kids help we might have more FOX-SAFE space for the chooks in less than a week.
And I won't break my back changing the water!!!
Oh cripes....what's he going to say......? :blink:

I didn't know Omlet did walk in runs, I thought they were stoop in runs!     How tall are they?

[Mrs Bee]

Eglu have just started to do stand up runs. They are big enough to stand up in.

Interesting to know how much making a stand up run from scratch. we were thinking of doing that but it might be cheaper to buy one form egglu. 

We have a Heath Robinson affair at the moment made of bamboo and netting. It isn't to stop the blasted foxes getting in, the electic fence does that, but we have some intrepid fliers who are also escape artists. I have tried telling them about the fox but they don't seem bothered.  We put up a make shift affair until we can decide what to do.

[ANHBUC]

Eglu have just started to do stand up runs. They are big enough to stand up in.

Interesting to know how much making a stand up run from scratch. we were thinking of doing that but it might be cheaper to buy one form egglu. 

We have a Heath Robinson affair at the moment made of bamboo and netting. It isn't to stop the blasted foxes getting in, the electic fence does that, but we have some intrepid fliers who are also escape artists. I have tried telling them about the fox but they don't seem bothered.  We put up a make shift affair until we can decide what to do.

Had a look at the eglu ones, they are expensive.  I would go for something like this
www.chicken-house.co.uk/acatalog/Large_Run.html which is larger, has a roof and cheaper. 

[joyfull]

but that is still £402 plus vat for a 6 feet x 9 feet basic with no anti dig mesh etc, and at least the Omlet ones are made of metal - no wood.

[viettaclark]

Interesting.....I paid £675 for a 3x2x2 m walk-in run which is slightly bigger and easier to move/dismantle. It also fits onto the Cube and run.
If you tally up the wooden run costs it's £584+ and you don't know the delivery but there is a roof too. It looks pretty solid but the posts obscure the view. The Omlet one seems more "open".
Never mind! I've got it now (one of the managers had a meeting in Romsey and brought it down next day because I was so fraught)
It goes up tomorrow as long as the fingers survive doing 300+ clips in icy temperatures....and I've already got a tarpaulin for the roof.
By the way...the chooks are ok if feathers rather lacking and Speckledie has laid an egg for two days. These are her first eggs for 2 months so maybe the shock got her moving......
They are not too impressed with staying in the run but are laying much better.....boredom?
New run tomorrow girls!

[ANHBUC]

Glad your girls are coping.  Some of mine have just come back into lay so it might be a coincidence.  Good luck with your tricky clips, you could try warming your hands on a newly laid egg!!!   

[Mrs Bee]

Glad the chooks are rallying.
Checked out the wooden run. Think I prefer the omlet run as it will fit in the space in the garden perfectly and seems less intrusive to the garden. Also I know it will be fox proof.

Really need something to stop the ladies flying out. EVen with their wings clipped they are great at flying out! Hence the Heath Robinson affair.

I get so frustrated and mad about councils doing nothing about controlling the foxes. We have so many and they are growing in number. Spoke to a game dealer recently who said that they rarely see foxes in his area except when townies have trapped a fox and come to the countryside to let them go. Apparently they don't last long in his area as the locals go out in their jeeps, lamp them and shoot them.

Although we have the electric fence round the girls run we still get a bit twitchy, especially as my sister has had a fox breach her electric fence and finish off the last of her girls.

We have had the local foxes visiting the garden much more recently and hubby has hurtled down out garden hurling obsenities at them several times a day but they still come back.

We have tried almost everything to keep them out of the garden. We have 6 foot fences and put prikka strips on them optimistically thinking that that would put paid to the  vile creatures but it hasn't stopped them.  They still scramble over the fences prikka strips and all. Narked about that as they weren't cheap.

We also went to the bother of having a small hedgehog hole cut in the bottom of the gravel boards of the new fences and was infuriated to see a fox squeeze though it.
Double jeapardy....... board up the hole and not see our hedgehogs visiting or see the hedgehogs and risk the foxes. As the foxes get in anyway we left the holes as I would miss the hedge pigs.

Sometimes if I put down a lot of chilli pepper it stops the fox  getting through the hole for  a while.

I don't like the sound of pest controllers charging £150 just to catch the fox and let the b.....r out else where. At that price you could get your own fox trap and take it on its holidays and you would still have the  trap for further use.

Although strictly speaking I have been led to believe that it is illegal to let the beast out once you have caught it and that you should have it shot.

I am looking into paying someone to deal with our fox nuisance but I will want to see the body! Not paying for them to let the brute out again  once they have caught it. I believe that they are rather good at finding there way back to their own territories again.

Really bugs me that I can't let our girls free range any more. They do remember and pine to get out in the garden! 

[viettaclark]

Well, we spent all week-end in icy temperatures getting chilblains in toes and fingers and calouses from clipping and tying. Also had to dig out a bit to make the area level.
I hope the girls appreciate the effort!
Anyway, they now have a super new home with even more room than I thought because we managed to join on the 3x1m run made by the OH. All under cover but rain will get in the sides of the walk-in bit.
I was initially a bit surprised at how flimsy it seemed and using a tarpaulin for the roof means rain will run down the edges. However OH has plans for some sort of guttering so I'll be saving rainwater as well.
The instructions were totally BAD and there weren't enough cable ties but too many clips. I have piled loads of saved dead leaves on the earth floor, put paving slabs around the un-wired run and tomorrow I'll cover the wired runs with earth.
Putting the Cube and it's run on seemed to stabilise it more and it's pretty unobtrusive because it's green mesh with no thick supports.
I'm much happier about leaving them in there all day when I'm not in the garden. When we were building the girls were out but I will have to be with them now. I'm not going through that again.
Anyway, hopefully fox-proof and I can walk in to do raking, food, water etc. which is a godsend with arthritic knees!!.
I will try and post some pics of my amazing new set-up soon.

[joyfull]

ahem forgotten something?

PHOTO'S please 

[dancingbillie]

I had 5 of my hens killed by a fox last summer because I'd put all the dogs in the house while I went shopping. 
The silly hens had flown up on top of their coop (which is over 2 metres high and adjacent to the house terrace where the dogs usually play) from their fox proof park,  then flown down into the main garden.  I don't know where the fox got in but he/she killed 5 and traumatised another who was almost featherless after the attack and stood staring at the inside wall of Cluckingham Palace for about 2 weeks, only moving to eat and drink, but since has grown feathers and is laying again.

I'd like to buy an automatic door for their coop but don't know how efficient they are.
Anyone got any experience?

I don't have anymore problems with rats going in their coop since buying a Solway rat proof feeder.
After 3 "lean" months with only getting 3 eggs from 15  hens, they've now started laying "normally."
I've a Speckledy, a White Sussex, 4 Bluebells, 4 Copper Blacks, an Amber Link and 3 little brown hens of unknown breed. 
I bought a second Amber Link at the same time as the one I have at the moment, but had to put it to sleep because it's comb never developed at all, and it was always "sickly" and never laid an egg.

[nerdle]

Hello Dancingbillie
I'm scared of anything technical but got an auto pop hole cover and an aluminium door from Flyte so Fancy.  Its great !

Huge help when I went on holiday as much easier job for hensitter.

Read the instuctions carefully - it really works!

[bood77]

when i was a bit youger about 9 i am 16 now a fox came and killed all of my chook i hate foxes now but since then we got rid of our ducks and have had no trouble with them i see them because we live out in the country but thank god nothing has happened my heart goes out to the people who have lost there chooks to foxes.

[dancingbillie]

when i was a bit youger about 9 i am 16 now a fox came and killed all of my chook i hate foxes now but since then we got rid of our ducks and have had no trouble with them i see them because we live out in the country but thank god nothing has happened my heart goes out to the people who have lost there chooks to foxes.

I love foxes and would never harm one.  It was my fault he took my hens because I hadn't protected them enough.  They have their cubs that need feeding at this time of the year, so I'm doubly careful.

[nerdle]

I totally agree with you dancingbillie.

Keeping chickens without fox proofing is like driving without insurance.

People should be angry with themselves when the chickens get foxed - they didn't take enough care.

[ANHBUC]

We all hope that our set up is fox proof but might not know until it is too late.  I love letting my ladies freerange for some of the day and keep an eye on them but it only takes a few seconds for a fox to jump the fence and grab a hen.

They are my pets and they do have a large enclosure but they have cleared everything but the mud at the moment!     It is really good for them to have a scrat about in the rest of the garden.

If a fox were to attack a cat or small dog would we expect to keep them in a fox proof enclosure for their safety or would we be asking for the fox population to be kept under control?

I really feel for anyone who has lost any poultry to a fox, please do not blame yourselves I am sure you did your best to protect them.

Just my opinion.