Omlet Eglu overpriced!

[ChookyChooks]

I have compared lots of houses now and the Omlet stuff is still about twice the price of most competitors-very in with the mums that want to boast, but really better to get a well made British house and keep your chooks mite free with anti-flea drops like you would for dogs and cats-they will have more room, be healthier and therefore live longer and lay more-Win, Win. When you power wash, you spread the mites and they just trundle back!

The Eglu runs are NOT fox proof, and the catches are the most annoying-badly made and don't fit properly. The plastic fades quickly and cannot be re-painted or stained. All in all... a big thumbs down from an experienced chicken keeper!

What would you recommend for a first timer then chooky?

I don't like eglus either. Too small, not well ventilated, like you say they are not fox-proof.

However, I'm surprised to see an experienced chicken keeper recommending flea drops for dogs and cats. These have not been tested or approved for poultry. Make the decision to use them yourself, but please don't recommend them to new keepers.
Birds often need different medicines to mammals, I for one (an experienced keeper) would not be risking my chickens.
The best way to deal with red mites is to clean the chicken house and spray all over with well diluted dettol, repeating every two or three days for two weeks. Jeyes fluid can be used, but is toxic to chickens so plenty of time must be allowed for the house to dry.

Some of the best chicken houses I've found are from white barn poultry (they used to have a website, but I can't find it)
The houses are very well made, everything is easy to take out and clean.

Dog flea drops are used extensively on racing pigeons and are marketed for birds, no-one has started marketing these for chickens, but my vet told me that they have the same active ingredient and just go on weight of bird, but approx. 3 drops per chicken works-together with the aromatic oils-I have had 300+ chickens for 8 years.... and no mites! Buttercup farm do a lovely range of well-made wooden houses and runs at an affordable price-great for 1st timers. Start off small and then use the smaller houses as isolation/chick or broody pens when you have become hooked!
www.buttercupfarm.co.uk/chicken-houses-and-runs.html

I quite like mine. Only keep bantams in it though, the size suits them. I keep my bigger chickens elsewhere. The fox is often around but it seems not to try to get in? Nice and easy to clean out and I like the food/water holders. Was looking at the cube shape one they do- does anyone have any thoughts on it?

On the whole not bad, especially for bantams, but they get condensation at night and that leads to illnesses in chickens. As you only have bantams in, I suspect they do not have so much breath-but seriously £700....yes £700 on a chicken house and run! The plastic degrades and fades, the run rusts and is not fox-proof and that is just for the basic model-A bigger timber house and a free-standing walk-in run would still leave you with change in the pocket! You can walk in and shut the chickens away, or spend the money on an automatic poop hole closer! Joy!

I'm really pleased with mine. Easy to clean & use. Yes the green had faded slightly, but that doesn't bother me.

Meant to add I have a cube not the smaller one.

I have both and am very happy with them, as are the chooks. I've kept a small flock for about five years now and find them easy to keep clean and to maintain, with no replacement of rotted parts needed.

(Both of mine were second hand, so were cheaper than full price and obvs much cheaper a few years ago).

Annoyed ofnorwich - I've 'pimped' my cube run and rearranged the run bit to have the door on the side. I got some more run panels second hand so it's way longer if the birds are kept in the run. Usually they're out and about during the day, but sometimes I have a nervous hen sitter when I'm away who prefers them kept in the run.

Ideally if I had the space I would have the cube inside a walk in run, but it and it's run fit neatly under the trees at the foot of my garden, then the hens have loads of space free ranging all over the place - although I have managed to keep them out of the veg garden or there would be nothing left!

I think the wooden ones look great too and are obviously effective. It's just a case of choosing what suits you.

And fwiw I am not a mum who boasts. :/

They are expensive, but mine was secondhand so rather cheaper.

It's 5 years old now and the only thing that's faded is the nylon shade. Also never had mites.

I get the drift-lots of happy people, just I have a lot of feedback about respiratory problems and I think that buying a British made product with a walk-in run, a larger, more ventilated house, lots more space to run around and much safer house and run for the same money-is what people should be recommending instead of a foreign made, small, poorly ventilated and expensive product! a friend is doing a survey on another site as his whole flock was wiped out by a respiratory disease that the vet said was partly caused by poor ventilation and overcrowding, so it will be interesting to see what response that brings as to longevity and disease in the Eglu products!

Gosh, you are super keen on promoting British made wooden arks on lots of threads aren't you! One might almost think you were a clumsy attempt at advertising!

Do you sell British-made wooden chicken houses, Chooky?

Poor ventilation and overcrowding can happen in any kind of chicken house.

seriously pondering chickens

also seriously pondering eglu cube for said chickens- not because I'm a ponce, but because I'm lazy

also it's really, REALLY foxy round here so wld really like people's views on this

[boasty mum face]

I have to disagree. We started off with a nice, British made wooden coop. The hens were ex batts, and so they came with red mite. We spent over a year and an absolute fortune trying to treat the mites, but never managed to get totally rid of them. Then the coop started to fall apart.

Buying a second hand omlet cube was the best thing we did, we would not still have chickens otherwise. Yes it was expensive, but we spend far less on bedding and sprays and the hens are far happier.

I love my cube, easy to clean, not rusted, not faded, no fox has got in. Not sure what the OP is trying to do, but there seems to be plenty of happy Omlet owners here. I've had mine for over 5 years.

heh heh

this has backfired somewhat

has anyone got ANYthing to say about foxes? I'm not bothered about the expense of the cube (or the fading) just as long as they're pretty fox resistant. OH is not all that convinced about chickens and the idea of finding the poor loves scattered over the lawn of a morning isn't helping my case

I haven't experienced anything myself because my gardens have been unusually fox-free (I think because there were dogs in gardens all round) but I have heard of foxes getting in, generally because the run hasn't been on level ground so foxes have been able to tunnel under the skirt.

If you put it on level ground and even peg it down and make sure it's all shut up properly (I've also heard of foxes getting in through the eggport if it's not properly closed) you shouldn't have trouble. They're certainly no less foxproof than many traditional houses.

I've got a Solway recycling plastic chicken coop made from recycled silage plastic - not funky looking like the eglu ones, but a lot cheaper! I've been very pleased with it - mine cost £180 a few years back & still looks like new, massively easier to clean & care for than my old wooden ark.

Re. foxes, I'd be inclined to build a fox proof run yourself around your hen house, so that you've got two layers of protection IYKWIM

takver they look brilliant! thanks for the link

and tunip dogs don't seem to be any sort of deterrent for lairy Lewisham foxes. I have two (admittedly dopey) staffs and if the foxes had fingers, they would be flicking the vs at them

We used Solway recycling for a pig arc and a chicken house (both basically the same just different scale) and found them very good. Long lasting, durable, easy to clean no mite problems. The only downside is they're very heavy and difficult to move.

I've only got the small house ( this one ) - mine's fine to pick up & move - I actually tend to pick it up & turn it upside down over a barrow to get the bedding out when I'm cleaning it - but I can imagine the bigger ones would be quite heavy.