And what of eglu's?

[broguemum]

DH has, to my astonishment, expressed great enthusiasm for my suggestion of keeping chickens. What are best methods? I've googled a bit and have seen eglus and the like - are they OK? How much time does one have to spend "looking after" hens as such? How many hens should one get for a family of four? Also I'd heard / read somewhere that the RSPCA doesn't like eglus - can anyone verify this and if so expand on why? Thanks very much.

Why would you spend GBP300 on a plastic box when you could make a portable run from offcuts and wire for about GBP20? Isn't it a bit of a fashion statement?

There's nothing that special or different about an eglu compared to making/buying something simpler or plainer yourself. Swanky as an eglu looks, it won't look so cool when it is surrounded by bare earth and chicken poop. If you want to keep chickens you won't be able to go on holiday unless you have someone to come in to look after your birds at least twice a day. Depending on where you live, they may stop laying in winter and there will be no eggs. On the plus side, they are wonderful entertainment, the eggs do taste better, and the poo does great things for your compost heap. A cockerel helps keep them all under control (all the pecking order battles) and will ensure your eggs are fertile. Then if you decide to keep meat chickens, you will have free tasty chicken to eat, especially with an investment of £50 for an entry-level incubator.

For a family of four, five or six will be more than enough - you'll be able to eat eggs regularly and also bake, as long as they laying.

Many thanks for the comments. I was wondering if the Eglu was anything special as the price is really quite exorbitant. I shall look around for something plainer or for some simple designs so we can build something ourselves. Any tips on design?

They need a perch, a nesting shelf/area that is comfy and private (but that you can access easily to collect eggs), no draughts, and I would recommend a concrete floor that can be hosed down reguarly.

If you are making a coop that is on the bigger side (rather than a small moveable ark thingy) make sure you can access the inside or get inside easily enough to clean it out. The main door on ours is chicken sized... so to clean it out we have to lift it... but it is made of such chunky heavy wood that I have to wait for DH's help to do that! Design Flaw .

Also if their nesting shelf is quite high off the floor, give them a little ladder-type thing to get up there.

If I was starting again on a chicken coop and was in the UK, I'd keep an eye out for a small second hand garden shed and adjust the insides. Gives you plenty of scope to add more birds in the future and is easier to clean out.

Try and design it so that you can access the nesting boxes from outside through a hatch. It'll save crawling in and disturbing them all, specially on cold wet days when they are inside.

And, if you want to plumb the depths of my experience, try and design the door to close quickly enough to decapitate one when the inevitable time comes for them to go to the great coop in the sky.

By the way, fat hens aren't laying - thin ones are good layers. Might help you to decide.

I recently went on a day 'Beginners poultry keeping course' as we are getting some chickens in a few weeks. I asked the women who was running the course what she thought about eglus (cos I quite liked the look of them). She said that she would not touch them with a barge pole, that they were too hot in the summer and not warm enough in the winter. But I know a lot of people who have them love them and have not had any probs with them. It put me off though and we now have a nice wooden one on order!

I keep directing people to my chicken blog! It's here. If you go down to the oldest posts you can see some pics of our homemade coop.

They are very easy to look after, lovely pets, very friendly. I think the eglus are good, but too expensive for what they are. The advantage they have is that they don't 'tend' to harbour redmite, which wooden coops can (especially those with felt roofs), but with adequate cleaning, this isn't a problem. We haven't had any problems like that.

Thanks everyone for your advice. I think we are going to try and build one... Hope it doesn't blow away in the wind.

Thanks again.