Plastic Coops.

[Karcheer]

Im going to get some chickens and im doing my research.

Ive decided I want a plastic coop which goes against all of my (don't buy plastic) morals - but i think it'll be easier to keep clean.

Obviously there is Omlet, but are there any other good plastic Coops - im not really keen on the bright colours.

Thank you.

I have an Omlet and it is amazing. So easy to clean and importantly they hold their value should you wish to sell on. I got mine second hand. I didn't really find any alternatives that looked as good personally.

We have second hand Omlets.

We have a classic with run for confining a hen in quarantine/a broody/mum with new chicks. It’s kept on grass and is easy to move with the run attached, on your own. Very easy to clean and for friends looking after hens if you are away.
If free ranging hens will come back to feed and lay. They may prefer to sleep ...up a tree, depends.

We have the big cube for the free ranging hens (5 at present) and they can be easily persuaded to return sleep in there too. The attached run is too small I think but when we are home we do still trap them in the run overnight and let them out in the day (fox fear though we have an electric wire too). also easy to clean etc.

We have no auto shutting which means we have to get up to let the cube hens out every single morning, and to bed at night. And we are frightened of traumatising friends whilst we are away if the free ones are casualties.

The “up” is also worth buying second hand. It’s the “go” with a base.
The go house is less strongly made and with age the plastic can be brittle and damaged whilst moving it unless you are more careful/have flatter grass than me. If you are collecting, the Up does dismantle and will go in a standard car more easily than the others.

Spare parts available but not cheap.

I have an omlet cube. Its better than the wooden coop we have for chicken holidays at the PILs. It has design issues though - the biggest one of which is that the roosting bars aren't great so the hens roost on the ledge between the roosting area and the nesting box which means the nesting box is always full of poop. The trays are also too shallow IMO.

For hygiene/avoiding pests:

We also invested in storage for their food and bedding (we are using aluminium “garbage can” bins with secure lids.)

And we upgraded our compost arrangements. I’m afraid we went for those plastic dalek things.

Grass rake we had already gets lots of use... Beach spade repurposed as poo shovel.. pick and mix style food scoops... Just a watering can for topping up water..

I've a second hand omlet but for similar money you could have a look at a Green Frog designs- same easy clean idea as the omlet ones but, dare I say it, more geared up to the needs of the chickens rather than the wants of the keeper... Solway also do similar. Both made from recycled farm plastic waste, much better for hygiene than wooden homes and will last a lot longer too, so they are as good as you can get in terms of plastic use, in my opinion.

Should say I've worked with green frog coops in the past as well as my second hand eglu classic at home. The eglu is ok, but it is literally just 'ok'. I wouldn't want to sleep in it, but the newer ones do look better in that regard.

They can eventually be persuaded to roost away from the nest box to ensure your first egg of the morning is clean.

The cube lid slides open so you can play rearranging hens at bed time. They will (again eventually) get used to their allocated positions if you are persistent enough/position then in an acceptable hierarchy.

Mine aren't having any of it unfortunately. They insist on the nesting box.

The omlet coops are fine IMO and I've had mine for about 9 years now and its on its last legs. They are really expensive though.

We have two omlets, one is 10 years old and still going strong. I would thoroughly recommend plastic. We have just had red mite for the first time ever this past week and I was able to power hose everything off. They came back the next day and I sprayed again and that got rid of the buggers. Wood coop would be near impossible to do that with and trust me you don’t want to be dealing with those vile blood suckers (I’m still itchy!).

We have a Green Frog coop and it is lovely. Mine all put themselves to bed at night (the three new pullets learnt from the older hens, and the broody is teaching her chick to do it now too even though they have their own coop), and we have an auto closer

We had an omlet cube for our girls and it was amazing, easy to clean and we had a run made to go around it. We brought ours secondhand and sold it 9 years later still I. Perfect working order! So you can be eco if you buy secondhand and sell if and when your done with it! Definitely worth the money x

Second hand is worthwhile if you need everything eg eglu and run.

I have run and been looking for eglu on ebay but they are more expensive than buying new as they all come with runs!

So depends if you just need the coop or not.

Also all ebay seem to be green...