[muntjac]

tea n cake ...... cor  jobs a goodun lol

[Sadgit]

we get foxes in our garden and they don't even notice the coop, which amazes me. Glad I bought a wooden coop as I find the egloo's look too small imo.

If you go for a wooden coop try and get one with a wooden floor that slides out. Makes cleaning them so much easier. I fully clean mine once every 4 weeks or so and it takes a matter of minutes.

[Aunt Sally]

Glad I bought a wooden coop as I find the egloo's look too small imo..

Did you go and see one SG ?

[jacnal]

Is this foxwatch part of the eglu Aunty? If it is, I'm sold    - but not yet! Seems I need a garden first!

Bodger - you really must keep loads of chooks for showing! Tip of an iceberg? Do you use them for eggs and meat too? Talk of working for a living, lol  

ChickenAnn - is it possible to post pictures of your wooden coop and where to buy? I'm thoroughly exploring all options  :roll:    Getting myself confused at the same time but I've a long while yet before I jump in!

Munty - I better not upset you  :shock:    

Sadgit - I'll definitely consider a sliding floor, whatever wooden coop I get. Thanks for the pointer  

[Aunt Sally]

No not part of the Eglu Jac

I bought mine HERE

[GrannieAnnie]

£65.00  !!!!!!

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And we have never had any red mite in any of our chicken or turkeys houses, which were all wood!

Not that I'm trying to sway anyone, its just that we prefer wood.

[jacnal]

No not part of the Eglu Jac

I bought mine HERE

Oh   .

Completely separate device. Worth it though if the chooks are out and about  :?   Another purchase to consider pre adopting!

[jacnal]

£65.00  !!!!!!

[/IMG]

And we have never had any red mite in any of our chicken or turkeys houses, which were all wood!

Not that I'm trying to sway anyone, its just that we prefer wood.

Grannie, your hen house looks just like Bodger's many! I suppose I shouldn't even ask you where you bought it, as Mr GA builds   . For £65 it's pretty good, and I'd just add a run and a foxwatch to it. How often do you clean to protect from red mite though?

I'm still torn, but I do need wood for the plot anyway. I'll have to convert the shed, and just add on to it the box on the side - is that where they lay? What is the little opening at the bottom of the right side Grannie?

[GrannieAnnie]

You're right Jac, Brian made it, so I suppose I wasn't really being fair, but I do think these poultry houses that you can buy are rather overpriced, when they are just a shed with extra bits!!!! lol

The little opening is the pophole that the chooks use to go in and out.  so the big door stays shut all day, unless its hot in the summer, then we leave both open.  Brian built that shed 4 years ago, and its never been re-treated, could do with it now I know, but that's not bad.  In the big chook house, the chickens run on deep litter, which is only cleaned out every 6 months! or at the change of chooks  The small one I've done once in the month since we had the POL's (Point Of Lays)  This photo was taken when I had a couple of chooks in it which had been bullied, but its now home to the POL's which we got a month ago.  Whenever we get rid of a batch of chooks, the houses are cleaned out, washed and usually sprayed with Jeyes, but since I had the chicks, I tried out Vanodine which we got from the feed shop.  Its brilliant.  It's iodine based, but was recommended by the editor of Smallholder magazine.  Its £7.55 a litre, but 4 little capfuls is enough in a 10 litre bucket and it cleans as well as disinfects, and you can keep the bucketful until either the water gets dirty, or the iodine colour fades, then you make up a fresh batch.  They say its so safe, you can even put a little in their drinking water to kill off any bugs, but I haven't done that yet!

And yes, the box on the side contains 3 nest boxes.  You need a least 1 nest box per 5 hens, but we try to give them more so they don't have to queue!!!

You mentioned converting your shed into half shed half hen house.  How big is the shed?  They reckon 1 hen needs at least 2sq ft of space, so for 10 you'd need 20sq ft.  If your shed is say 8x6 and you had half for chooks, that'd be enough.  But have the run as big as you can, I hate seeing chickens squashed into tiny runs where they can't try out their wings!  We are lucky where we are, as in the 5 years we've been here, we've never seen a fox and we are surrounded by fields.  

That's probably why we've never seen a fox, they are all in the towns eating from dustbins!!!!!

[Sadgit]

Glad I bought a wooden coop as I find the egloo's look too small imo..

Did you go and see one SG ?

yeah i did.. I mean too small for my 3 birds.. they might be ok for 2 perhaps?

[Aunt Sally]

Glad I bought a wooden coop as I find the egloo's look too small imo..

Did you go and see one SG ?

yeah i did.. I mean too small for my 3 birds.. they might be ok for 2 perhaps?

I'd agree with that if they don't freerange all the time and no run extension is fitted.

[stickywicket]

Chicken Ann I would also like to know which one you decided on.

I like the look of wood and have enough space for one. I don't need a built in run as I will be fencing off a section of my garden but a built in run looks safer from a fox point of view  :idea:

Thanks for all the info on this thread. Great  

[Sadgit]

Chicken Ann I would also like to know which one you decided on.

I like the look of wood and have enough space for one. I don't need a built in run as I will be fencing off a section of my garden but a built in run looks safer from a fox point of view  :idea:

Thanks for all the info on this thread. Great  

If you lock up the hens each night and the coop is sturdy and no way for a fox to get in, then you should be fine with the fenced of section of the garden... well that is my view anyway, but what do I know..

PS was fast asleep last night and woke up at 1am and for the 1st time I hadn't locked mine up, so dragged my sorry ass out in the rain to lock them up.. My Dad once forgot to lock up the 60 or so hens we had when I was a kid and the day we had about 5 left. Foxes had ran riot in the coop. We had loads of foxes in the area as we lived on an old farm with loads of woods and fields... well you live and learn

[Gloria]

From the position I'm in at the moment I wish we had got a large eglu cube. We have been doing battle against red mite for over 6 weeks now and my daily routine involves two hours of cleaning the (wooden) henhouse, burning shavings etc and still we have not won yet. If you have not had redmites you are very lucky, I read someone else saying they made him decide to give up keeping chickens in the end and I understand why. So a plastic coop seems worth the money to me at the moment ( I daren't tot up what we've spent so far on cleaning agents etc etc etc). Not to mention bubble bath for the constant bathing..... :cry:  :cry:  :cry:

[stickywicket]

I had a look at the omlet website last night and whilst I did not think I would consider having one, the eglu does look very practical. Funnily enough I discovered today that my hairdresser's mum had one which she  sold to a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago as she is upgarding to the cube, so I am going to go round and see my frinds eglu soon. So far she is very happy. Can't believe how many chicken keepers there are out there :shock: