Photos of your chooks and runs please?

[meltingsugar]

May be getting some hens but unsure of the best set up. Ideally I'd pop them on the concrete slabs down the side of the house with some wood chip, and let them out to scrap in the garden when we're home. Not keen to shell(!) out for an eglu but if they're really the best in terms of keeping pests/mites away then I will.

I have a feeling that MN folk will be very ethical in their keeping of chickens, so would love to see what you have and for how many hens. We will probably only get two. Thanks

Our set up! Eglu Go Up with 2m extension. They are allowed to FR when we’re at home (although they are currently on a ban because we have a new lawn!). Just the two girls and they always seem quite happy. They have a couple of extra perches in there that they enjoy. They are normally covered with a clear plastic tarp but that’s off at the moment as it’s so hot.
They are on soil - no slabs - and I will be getting some more woodchip for them in the coming days.
Good luck with your hens!

The chooks we had when I was living st home lived in a wooden house. But it did have to be cleaned with jayes fluid occasionally to get rid of mites, and we used to dust with dyamataceous earth sometimes.

My coop is wooden, never had a mite problem. I have this red powder I dust the whole inside of the coup with once a year, at the start of spring. I don't like the idea of them being in a plastic coop for some reason, I always wonder how they keep cool in summer.

I have an eglu cube and it's riddled with red mite. There are thousands of tiny pinprick holes in the plastic and they hide in those. Annoys me as it was very expensive. It's easy to clean but the mites remain. Mine was an early model....dont know if they've improved.

Not I have a cube and discovered red mites were getting into the bit that divides the sleeping area from the nest box. There is a large hole in the bottom. I take it out every now and again and fill it with very hot water which kills the mites and flushes them out. Good to do on hot days so that it can dry out properly before putting back. I also spray in with mite killer. The removeable door to the nest box has a similar hole so I spray in there as well.

I have a cube attached to a go though I have just ordered two more cube extensions so they will have a bit more run and then just use the cube. My girls and one boy are a bantam mixture.

Had them 5 years and no red mite. I change out the wood chips twice a year and get new ones from local tree surgeon

Eglu Go up here. Our girls free range all day. Two hybrids and two pekins bantam girls. I wish we had gone for a cube, because you can't have too many chickens!

We have ours in a wooden coop with a small attached run, but they free range unless we are going away overnight. We are fortunate to have a large, secure garden, but friends have theirs in a mobile electric fencing type enclosure that works really well in their set up.
Mites wise we had a bad infestation the first year because I wasn't quick enough to act before they took hold. We don't have any problems now so I don't think timber is any worse to manage than plastic. The trick with mites is very much preventing them from getting a foothold as they multiply at a horrifying rate!

We have two ex batts in here. They are locked into the small run under yhe house at night.

Watching with interest. We have an original (1930s) pig style in our garden and have considered turning it into a coop for a pair of chickens. Any thoughts/experiences regarding whether this would work or not?

This is the actual house.

Eglu Go here. Just had this run built as the original seemed a little small for them they're on gravel and I let them out to free range in the garden or give them greens. Really pleased with the set up. Girls are clean and it's super easy to hose away the poo.

PS, I have had mites (after sending them to a holiday home), but a weekly clean out and spray with mite kill sorted it out and had no problem since, though one of my girls did pass away last week :(