Recommendations for a new chicken house, please

[Tryharder]

Have 3 ex battery chickens who live in an ark which I bought cheaply off ebay. However, as with all things, you get what you pay for and the wood is starting to split plus the hatches shrink and expand with the weather which means they can't always be closed etc etc.

It's also not very big so feel sorry for my chickens and have been letting them out on the back garden. Anyway, my DH has gone ballistic because they have raked up all our plants and spoiled the lawn plus they poo everywhere, kids tread in it etc etc.

So would like to invest in a larger coop, so they have quite a lot of living space to walk about so am not tempted to let them out anymore. Am interested in a plastic coop which seems easier to clean. I have looked at eglus but the little one seems a bit small and the cube is hugely expensive so am a bit reluctant to order one.

Cost is a factor; in an ideal world, would spend no more than £150 but would go higher for the perfect coop. Any ideas/links, anyone? Am in Yorkshire. Collection difficult, not necessarily impossible.

Hello,

We have the Eglu, small one. It is plenty of room for the hens to sleep and lay in. We have 3 of them. They say up to 5 can be housed at one time in a small one.

We got a double extender on the run which means they get much more room to scratch about in and is ample space for them if they are to be kept in during the day.

Our hens are pretty destructive as well. We do let them out but have fashioned several chicken proof plant protectors for when we allow them to run round.

If you are going to keep them in a run all the time try to ensure they have plenty of things to play with as otherwise they may start pecking at each other.

You can pick up cheaper eglus on ebay.

One thing I think is worth mentioning that we have tried with the wooden houses but they will break down after a couple of seasons. We bought the Eglu to overcome this and have had ours happily in the garden for 3+ year now with no sign of needing to change it. It is also really easy to clean and collect eggs from etc.

omlet have brought out a cheaper one thats eglu size

the good thing about smaller housing is you can expand if needed but it gives you greater flexibility of use

Thanks. Will have a look at the omlet website. What do you give your chickens to play with btw?

I normally give them a spring cabbage (or similar) tied up on the top of their cage, it is on a metal clip that holds it in place and it swings about so they have to move about to get it.

A litter tray filled up with sand they love it for a dust bath.

A tube of meal worms every so often so they get to eat something new in a new way.

Boiled pasta or potato peelings thrown about the bottom of the run occasionally.

I don't know about the chicken house, but I would hope you have a good way of keeping foxes out with great fencing. (see other thread). I think its worth it!

We have 18 hens adn struggled to find anything within budget. In the end Dh got an old small shed out of the paper and converted it. He made it lower and added nest boxes. It's ideal and was free to collector. The whole idea does depend very much on room and woodwork skills though.

try forsham or flyesofancy for houses.
some of them are a bit on the small side, and i'd always err onthe side of caution anyway, so if it says 6 birds, that should be okay for 3 birds.
ours lived in a 3ft by 3ft coop until i extended it, and it was fine for 4 birds.

(i personally wouldn't bother with a plastic coop, but i know they're a lot easier to clean...)