Keep chickens cool in summer

[Hockeyaholic]

I suppose this applies to all eglu owners but mines a bunny eglu so here I am...

 

Just thought I should warn other eglu owners to do all they can to weight their eglus and runs down in these stormy conditions and to remove the shades in serious storms as we had quite a fright today! Due to the high winds my eglu and run was dragged across our patio today. The run's always weighted down with bag-covered bricks to prevent any unwanted visitors managing to get in or my 2 bunnies escaping, but these had come striaght off.

 

Unfortunately I was at work but luckily my parents were in to sort it all out, but none of them saw it happen. However, we believe that despite the bricks weighing down the run, the shades had acted as a sail and lifted the run in the air (as the front skirt panel was found inside the run). As the shades had acted as a sail the whole thing went sailing across the patio taking the eglu with it - and the rabbits were either in the run or the eglu

 

We've now taken the shades off the run and weighted down either side with various bits of heavy garden furniture. My silly bunnys still stayed out in the rain this afternoon even though we'd taken the shades off So despite their fur feeling a bit fluffier as they both got a bit wet, they both seem fine (thank goodness).

 

Thought i better warn others though as not only could my rabbits have escaped but the run could have landed on my poor bunnies.

[chelsea]

Thanks for your post. And yes I will make sure my eglu is well weighted.

 

Thank goodness your bunnies are ok

At least this windy stuff has gone now....be prepared for frost and snow next week

 

thanks again,

[pepe]

Glad all is well now. The exact same thing happened to me, I now have garden slabs all aroung my run.We had strong winds the other day, but not as strong as the ones before xmas, thankfully all has been well.

[mrbunny]

Just said this in another post so sorry if you've already seen it - I have 2 cheap see through shower curtains on my rablu which keeps it completely dry, I've used about 6 bungee cords, the sort with hooks, to keep them secured to the run, it seems to work really well and it all stayed put in the gales which nearly had the fence down so were pretty strong

[pepe]

Hope you don't mind me asking, but where did you get your bungee cords from? My summer shade is starting to rip, I still have the winter one, plus one for the extension, but I may use tarpaulin in the future. Thanks

[The Dogmother]

Mine came from B&Q - they're really cheap. If you click on the link to my album, there's a close-up somewhere there.

[pepe]

Thanks Clare

[Sooty&Sweep]

Hi everyone,

 

We've had our eglu for a year now and have been concerned when the wind picks up and/or it starts to rain heavily.

 

Due to the position of our house the wind and rain really blow across and down our garden and gets under the covers we have in place on the eglu causing the little fellas to get quite damp/wet.

 

So what we did was buy some hessian (spelling?) bags, sandbags in effect and placed them on the outside lip of the run. This not only stopped the rain and wind getting underneath the covers but also held the run down securely when the wind really gets up. We managed to get a dozen or so off ebay for £10 and then just filled them with sand.

 

Not exactly a very attractive sight but during the winter months they keep the run dry and absorb any water that approaches the run if your eglu is on a patio or a slope etc.

 

Important to mention that we don't have the bags right up against the run as the little fellas do like to chew them

 

Hope this is of some help

[Hockeyaholic]

What a good idea!

 

We're going to put some slabs down around the run as the bricks just aren't heavy enough but to get some sand bags for when its wet is a great idea cause even though the runs covered it still gets wet due to the water running in.

[West Country bunny]

We definitely take the extra long Eglu cover off the run in bad weather....

A few weeks ago when it was really, really windy down here (typical West Country storms and driving rain!) we woke up in the morning to discover the whole of the run and Eglu totally upside down in our flower bed and so, so luckily, both rabbits were still alive and very scared in the gardent! How they weren't hurt when it happened, frightened to death, eaten by foxes or escaped from the garden I will never know!

 

You can only imagine the scene, the girls and I running around our garden in our dressing gowns desperately trying to catch the poor soaking wet bunnies!

 

I think the idea of sand bags sounds great and I will look into it! Thanks everso for the advice! Do you think that Eglu are aware of this potential problem?

[The Dogmother]

Clare* also had this problem with her Rablu and lost her bunny as a result. Thanks for the warning - we all need to be aware. I am going ot copy htis thread into the Eglu section as most chook owners might not look here and it's relevant to them too.

[bronze]

I used tent pegs (stolen from the caravan awning) the second night of high winds we had. The first I had to go out with bricks but the pegs did the trick. Our chippingsd etc are straight on the ground though so its possible for us.