Opinions please

[JillJ72]

Hi,

I'm looking at getting chickens either this year or next. I saw this house/run in the garden centre and would like your opinions. My first thought is - if there were foxes locally, would they burrow under and cause mayhem?

www.dobbies.co.uk/acatalog/rabbitshack-small-chicken-house-RS-709S.html

I will also be visiting a friend who has an Eglu, as the idea of 'easy to clean' is appealing to some extent (but not as rustic as a wooden house).

Thank you - Jill.

An eglu is very easy to clean and as such helps to prevent red mite which love wood houses. The run is also meant to be foxproof which I don't think the one you link would be.

I've only ever had wooden ones and can honestly say we've never had red mite (touch wood!!)
we have ours in a large free range area with electric fencing. we know we have fences because there are dens in the paddock but as yet the fencing has done a great job.
personally don't like eglu's but that's just my personal taste.

big advantage of the Eglu is how movable it is. That one doesn't look easy to move. Would that matter to you or not?

I've just hosted a 'hen party' and one of my attendees was a lovely lady with a wooden house totally infested with red mite which she can't get rid of. She came to have a good look at my cube. We generally ate cake and talked hens.

I'm very happy with my eglu and cube and so far (touch eglu) haven't had any problems.

Just checked your link. Same as my friends have. Unfortunately they were 'foxed'. It's a nice house, but I was concerned that there wasn't enough space for her girls to scratch around and do their stuff.

Hmmm, my big concern is that it's not foxproof, and although I've not seen sight of a fox, I'd rather plan for there being one around. I like the rustic nature of a wooden house but by the same token I like the funkiness of the Eglu, the ease with which it can be cleaned and looked after, and that it doesn't take over the whole garden - we have an average-sized back garden. Would love a Cube but an Eglu Go is more within our budget (this year... yes, I'm rather broody for chickens!). I plan for the home to stay in one place, but for the chickens to be able to free range, firstly when we're at home, and secondly when we have some trust that the neighbourhood cat posse would steer clear (I think our cat would be a bit of a big scaredy boy!). I do, of course, appreciate that the chickens may have their own ideas about how they should live in our garden .

Thanks for your input thus far. There are pros and cons to having wood or Eglu... but I think being realistic, the Eglu has the edge for ease of maintenance. I don't think it would take too much for DH to see that the Eglu is the funky "VW Campervan of the egg world"!

i have that very same coop but in green, it's much cheaper here

not had any problems with foxes so far and we are surrounded by feilds and farms. and it's been quite easy to clean.

It's crap - don't buy it. Won't last the winter and a pain to clean.

I have read that it's the roofing felt rather than the wood which encourages mites. We did have a cheap coop (wood)from ebay but the quality was not great= I think I'd prefer to see something in rl. Eglu looks great if you like that sort of thing, but would be difficult to expand your flock- chickens can nbe addictive!

Well, after looking at the Omlet site with DH.... I am just about to place an order for a Cube. I was and quite surprised when he looked and said he thought the Go was a bit small and why not get the Cube, if that's what I wanted.

Deep breath, here I go

Fab - ask them if they've got reconditioned ones in, it saves a little money. I heart my cube, so do my girls.

I guess the next question is how many chickens... I was thinking 3 or 4 but would that be 'too many' to start with? Odd numbers or evens?

four is great in a cube, although you may need a run extension if they're going to be in the run part for a lot of the time. The omlet girls are great - particularly the gingernut rangers.

I am ordering two of each, going for the 3m run so there is enough space from the off. I'm cringing now... but it'll be worth it I'm sure! Thanks for your help.

Fabby! Can't wait to hear how you get on. I currently have 4 girls in my 3m run and am going to buy another extension (or WIR) in preparation for putting my two other girls across from their eglu.
It will so be worth it!

a lot of people seem to upgrade to a Cube within a year of buying an Eglu - half the ones for sale second hand seem to be from people who are getting a Cube (mine was).

I don't really see the point of the Eglu Go. If they had managed to make it cost seriously less than the classic Eglu it might have been worth it but as it is it looks a lot worse but still costs as much as a secondhand Eglu....

Hi, quick update. We got our Cube and four hens last weekend. We are already getting eggs , one or two a day. They haven't yet been let out as we need to raise our fence height a bit more with mesh at the weekend... and then we shall watch as I assume they will go a bit mad when they're first allowed to free range in the garden!