What makes a chicken coop easy to live with?

[Chicken_Girl17]

hi, this is my second post, so here goes!

 

number one,

the eglu cube space, i want to have 3-4 chickens in th eglu cube, whats it like inside is there a nesting box and a sitting area or something, becuase i want to make sure that my chickens will be able to shelter alright at night and during rain!

 

number two,

is the run on the eglu cube going to be enough or will i be able to let my chickens out of the run knowing that they will come back safely at night!? a neighbour across the road has a small pen and chickens and they run around in her fields and even across the road onto the verge outside of our house, will i be able to do the same.. i'm so nervous!

 

number the third

We have 3 cats, our neighbours have cats aswell and a few strays near our house, will these bother our chickens at all? becuase i don't know if they will attack them... what about badgers or rabbits or moles!!

 

i hope you can help me!!

[Redwing]

Hi and welcome

 

The cube is split inside with a partition, one small section is the nest box, big enough for plenty of hens and the other part is a large roosting area

 

The cube is also raised off the ground so the chickens can shelter there, they rarely go indoors to shelter from rain

 

You can cover the cube run top with a tarpaulin to keep the chooks dry though

 

I am not sure about the run but think there is space for 3 comfortably, someone will be along soon who can confirm this I am sure

 

Once the hens know where the coop is (about a week) they will come back when you let them out, many people confine them to an area with netting, I wouldnt recommend letting them completely free range if you arent around because of the risk of foxes

 

Let the cats get to know the chickens through the safety of the run but most chickens can see off a cat no problems

[Olly]

The Cube and run is definitely big enough for 3 hens - as Redwing says, they don't usually go indoors except to lay in the nesting box, but they can shelter under the Cube from rain and it's a good idea to cover as much of the run as you can with a shower curtain, tarpaulin or similar. If you buy a Cube from Omlet it will come with a run cover, and you can buy additional ones (including ones for the sides at the back).

 

Personally I wouldn't let my hens free-range if they could get onto a road, for obvious reasons. Whether you let them outside the run is really up to you, but there's always a risk of foxes wherever you live. Mine are in the run all the time unless I'm around in the garden to supervise. You can get 1m extensions to the run, if you want to give them more space but the standard run should be enough for 3 chickens.

 

Cats are not generally a problem to chickens - the chickens will flap and squawk and scare the cat off, the first time it tries anything! Rabbits and moles, no need to worry. Badgers are like tanks - if anything gets in their way they just bulldoze ahead, so I wouldn't put the Cube and run in a path that you know badgers use, in case they tried to push it over. However I don't think they are very likely to try and dig into the chicken-run - I've not heard of that, anyway.

[Sarahw12]

We don't have badgers near to us, so I've no personal experience, but I've definitely heard people complain of badgers breaking into runs and houses, and taking hens.

 

Sorry! I don't want to be a bearer of bad tidings, but another forum I use often has mentions of badger/hen troubles.

[Chook n Boo Mum]

The standard run would be ok for 3 hybrids, but not large fowl like Orpingtons, I'd go for at least one extension or a larger WIR (walk in run) and free ranging has to be a contained affair as far as I'm concerned...the risk of foxes and cars is just too much to contend with in my opinion. Your neighbour has presumably been lucky so far? I'm lucky, I have a large garden which apart from the liberal sprinkling of moulted feathers and a few dustbaths (and obviously the array of chook houses and runs ) doesn't show too much chook damage.

 

My flock see off the neighbours cats, but not without a huge amount of shrieking and hollering They've also successfully taught my 3 labradors that they (the chooks) are not to be messed with....................

 

Sha x

[Chickendoodle]

We have our and inside a large area surrounded by Omlet netting. The chickens are kept in the cube and eglu runs when we go out but when we are home they are in the netted off area. We do let them free range in the garden for a couple of hours each day but under supervision or else they would wreck it!

 

Certainly would not leave them to roam around unsupervised

 

We put ours to bed (shut them in their runs) an hour or two before dark with a small bowl of corn as I think that is when they would be most vulnerable to foxes. I'm sure they would take themselves to bed but don't want to risk it.

 

We have a cat and she is frightened of the chickens!