Wood is ok, just be aware of the possible pitfalls, which I gather you have been researching in comparison to the eglu.
You could end up spending as much on a wooden house as you would have done on an eglu and be unhappy with your purchase, I have! Also cheap wooden houses are a false economy, and dear ones aren't always a guarantee of a better product. If you do some research and are quite handy you can probably make something far better than you can buy.
So what is your budget? How many hens are you going to keep in it?
If you're going to buy watch out for a few things, and if making try and design in these things to make life easier.
I've found some very expensive wooden houses, while heavy, to be next to useless - impractical to clean despite what their description says, you can't get in easily unless you're a contortionist! And you need an assortment of different tools to clean them.
I've also mistakenly bought cheaper houses, I think I paid £150 for one from pets at home last year, it was new in for them so there wasn't one assembled for me to look at but even so I should have realised it wouldn't be up to much.
It is a house upstairs integral with the run, all covered. It is ok, just not brilliant. It's made of thin wood so it's light and flimsy and doesn't have things like a catch on the nest box lid. I don't expect it to last very long.
It's the one I use for new introductions, my broody is raising her chicks in there even now, with some tiny ducklings I snuck in later, and it was big enough for my goslings and even a cockerel for a couple of days.
But I think it would be extremely cold in winter, although the same could be said for many houses but this one more so than a house made of thicker timber. I insulate around all of mine with straw bales, and try and get as many hens in together as possible, which they sort of do on their own anyway.
Things to avoid
- anything that slides, or has to fit snugly. Wooden sliding doors and pull out droppings trays stick and I've damaged an expensive house forcing things in and out. Even treated timber will expand when wet and I've got a relatively expensive house where I have to lift the nest box lid and push the door open from the inside. Rubbish.
- floors with too many lips, gaps and general places that can trap bedding, poo and then mites. It is an utter nightmare to clean those properly, and it'll put you off doing it as much as you should. You want a floor you can sweep straight out onto a tarp or something, no fiddling.
- small openings. You need a side to come off entirely so you can see exactly what you're doing
- nest boxes higher than perches - WRONG I can't believe how many so called expertly designed houses have this back to front.
- the inside is all perches, no flat floor. This is ok if you're attaching a part covered run but if not it's pretty hopeless inside, you can't leave food or water in there, so when you bring your new chickens in and shut them in for a while to settle how are they meant to eat and drink? They can't.
- as above, no windows. If your chooks need to be closed in for whatever reason in the day it's going to be pitch black. It's not something you'll always need to do necessarily, again it's fine if there's a secure covered run attached. But if you'll be out in the day and want to close them in for protection from foxes and the like, if it's dark you're effectively shortening their daylight hours and they'll think it's winter and stop laying! I don't mind my lot rosey and crowing for an hour or two before I let them out.
- felt roof! Most recently bought is a house which was made to order, originally it would have come with a felt roof but I insisted ours be changed to onduline. Why would someone who makes poultry houses use anything else?!
My best house is the one I made myself out of a 6x4 shed. You can get them with plastic roofs now so no felt. I cut it to bits to adapt it to suit chickens but a few bits of timber, a metal sliding pop hole off the internet, and bob's your uncle. I cut a sheet of thick plastic to go on the floor and partly up the sides, which I can drag out the door for cleaning, tip the lot in the compost and it gets a wash in the rain. The perches are thick branches cut from our trees so naturally shaped and good grip, they lift out completely and I can burn them if needed, and simply cut more branches to replace. Best of all I can stand up in it so no more bending and crouching.
It is thin timber and I would have bought a better quality shed if I was any good at DIY but knowing I was going to attack it and re-build it I didn't see the point! And there is a lot of space to heat in winter but I put straw right round to waist height to help, and it takes all my 20 hens if they choose so they keep each other warm.
I won't buy a wooden house again, they just don't stack up to the modern plastic ones for ease of use, cleaning and and no maintenance. My life would be a lot easier and my chickens would have a healthier environment in plastic.
My next purchase is going to from Green Frog Designs, they have a good range of houses, for larger numbers of hens than an eglu and prices are a bit lower. Although I like the eglu cube! I will gradually replace all my motley wooden collection with these.
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November 22, 2010, 22:43