Britannia Ovens (esp Range cookers) your experience

[Olly]

I've concluded that a walk-in run has to be this year's plan, both for my benefit and the hens' as they spend a lot of time in the Cube run. I don't think my DIY skills are up to building something like this, so I'm looking at prefabricated ones such as Aviaries4You, which lots of you have recommended.

 

I'm sure that somewhere I've seen a prefab run with the Cube on the outside, but I can't find it now. I know lots of you clever peeps have built your own and attached the Cube outside, and I've seen LoopyLoo's thread on this - but does anyone have a prefabricated run with this set-up? I want to maximise floor space, and to be able to clean/collect eggs without going into the run itself. Any ideas, please?

[BarbaraJ]

I'm sure one of the 2 recommended avairy/run people i've seen on here will make the run as you wish with a means to put the cube on the outside.

[Cooks]

yes on the avaries4u website theres photos and you will see they have made them especially for the cube or eglu depending on their customers wishes.

 

I have my carpenter hubby so he is adapting mine asap. But the weather is pants here at the moment, so I cant rush him.

 

Cocoa took one look at the weather and went back in the walk in, she hates the cold on her feet Sugar was running around with wings flying everywhere nutters!

[BarbaraJ]

lol i just let mine out and even in sight of warm porridge Ebony gingerly waked over after a few minutes but Ruby flew over to the bowl lol

[Cooks]

I gave my warm porridge for brekkie.. they were talling me how gratefull they were very loudly for them glad my neighbours have chickens and love these girls as well!

[madman]

i'd like to know the answer to olly's question too. olly how long have you been keeping chickens?

[bellekatz]

 

 

My Blue Cube is on the outside of my run from http://www.grangepetcentre.co.uk/Aviary-flights-p-1-c-4.html

[BarbaraJ]

i was concerned with that way of doing it, that the ladder would be a problem if you wanted to pull the cube back then i saw loopy had attached the ladder to the frame rather than the cube so i'm going to do that

[bellekatz]

We put an extra strut across ours and did attach the ladder to that in the end.

[Olly]

Ah, thank you very much for the above replies. I've looked at the Aviaries4U website but although they show Eglus/Cubes inside the runs, they don't show them attached to the outside as far as I can see. I'll look again as I know I saw them once before. I guess the thing to do is to ring up and get some quotes, I'm holding off for another month or so before I commit to this! I'll have a look at the website you've mentioned, Bellekatz.

 

Madman, I started with two chickens and a in February 2007 - they were a very generous housewarming present from a group of my friends the previous November when I moved to this house. I soon decided I wanted more, and I ended up adopting 3 chickens and buying their in October 2007. Then in March 2008 I sold the Eglus, and moved them into the with a run extension. Sadly I lost one of the adopted chickens, but last week I took on Pippi who was proving too noisy for the built-up area where Forensica lives. So I'm nearly up to 2 years of chook-keeping.

 

My ladies have to spend quite a lot of time in their run, and although I think the Cube + extension is fine, I'd like to give them a bit more space. The real reason for converting however is that I went to visit Tessa a couple of weeks ago, and saw 'Hendon Central', built by her husband. I suddenly realised the advantages of having a walk-in, full height run from the point of view of cleaning, filling feeders and so on. I just need to decide where to put it!

[quickcluck]

olly there's a pic on here somewhere of a built in one where the lid of the cube is integral to the run, but I can't find it for the life of me

 

maybe someone else can help?

 

I think it was an orange cube....

[Louisdog]

I have a Flyte so Fancy run which is really good, anyway they will make a docking bit so that you can have your house on the outside of the run - don;t have details as we didn't do it but I expect it's on their site or they are really helpful on the phone.

 

Cheers

Alex

[Couperman]

 

I just butted the Cube run upto the walk in one and cut a hole through for the door.

 

It gives the a bit more space and I can seperate them if necessary.

 

It does make mucking out under the cube a bit of a chore as it is hard to move in such a tight spot.

 

Kev.

[Olly]

Thanks, more good tips there. I went to visit a friend this weekend and she reminded me that the builder we both used a few years ago is now semi-retired, and he is primarily a carpenter - she reckons that he would love to build a chicken-run! So now I'm thinking of drawing up an outline, and seeing how much he'd charge for a couple of days work if I ordered the materials. The possibilities are endless ... still can't decide where to site it in the garden though!