4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Ian S]

Hi,

 

 

About 8 months ago I inherited a couple of hybrid hens and an Eglu from my Neice who unfortunately had to give them up. They are coming up to 2 years old now and are both good layers. They only stay in the eglu overnight as I let them out first thing in the morning and they are totally free range all day with garden, paddocks and a barn to roam around, and they often follow me or my wife around as we do jobs around the place. As it starts to get dark they put themselves to bed in the eglu after which I close them in. Although there is a standard 2 meter run on the Eglu, they rarely stay in it.

I am now thinking of getting two more hens to go with them but I have a couple of questions;

The first is, will there be any problems to introduce two young (16 week) hens to the existing two ?

The other is, does anyone have experience of keeping 4 hens in an eglu ? I know the literature says the eglu is for up top 4 hens but I'd like some first hand advice if possible.

 

Thanks

Ian

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Welcome to the forum Ian .

 

It's not really the eglu itself that limits the number of hens, it's the run. If your hens freerange all day and only sleep in the eglu then 4 would be fine. (One forum member had 10 hens sleeping in one eglu - by choice .)

 

Introducing new hens to existing ones can be fraught with difficulty . It's not something I've had experience of but if you search the forum for "introductions" you should find some useful advice.

[WitchHazel]

Hi Ian, welcome to the forum!

 

Getting two new hens is a great idea. As your existing hybrid girls are two years old, it's likely that you'll end up with just one hen at some point. If you introduce two newbies now, you won't be left with one lonely girl.

 

There is a lot of help on the FAQ>Chickens section. Here's a link to introducing new point of lay hens, which I'm guessing is what you're after viewtopic.php?f=42&t=25886

 

An Eglu is probably OK for four hens to sleep in, but the standard run wouldn't be long enough. I read that your girls are lucky enough to free range all day, so from that point of view you'd be fine. You just need to consider what your arrangements would be if you are away, if your Girls are going to be shut in for any length of time.

 

All the best!

[Laura&Sean]

Hi, I have four hens in an with a converter and they free range from morning until dusk most days as I work from home and my office overlooks my garden, its very relaxing to watch happy hens toddling about all day!

 

In my opinion the eglu with converter is good for 4 hens but without converter maybe a little small, the extra mtr of converter makes a massive difference!

 

Good luck whatever your decision is

[Purplemaniacs]

We have four in an eglu and there seems to be plenty of room for them, as others have said it is the run size that is the problem a standard run is too small for four but as you freerange all day that should not be a problem for you.

[Ian S]

Thanks for this very good advice. I now feel confident to go ahead with the purchase of a couple more hens and I'll take care with the introductions.

 

Ian.

[AJuff]

Despite having two eglus ALL ten chooks cram into one eglu!! There will be bags of space for four.

[Lesley]

Despite having two eglus ALL ten chooks cram into one eglu!! There will be bags of space for four.

 

Ours used to do the same! - and that was with two Mark 1s

 

You'll need to keep the new ones in the Eglu run for a while until they are used to the Eglu but then they will be able to range with the others.

[Janty]

Our four new girls are in an eglu with run, convertor and extention. However, this week we have started letting them out the others to free-range. They have plenty of room when I check on them at night.

[ubereglu]

I have four hens quite happily living in my Mark 2 eglu. They're very happy and free-range most of the day.