Eglu Go With 2m Run For Sale

[Dolly]

We are planning to build the girls a lovely new purpose built WIR in the corner of the garden - before we start, does anyone have any suggestions from past experience on what we should or shouldn't consider?

 

Also, would you recommend leaving the ground as is, ie. grass / mud etc. or cover the whole floor with aubiose or similar, to make it easier to keep clean?

 

Many thanks!

[chick wiggle]

Is it gonna have a roof? Ideally it should, then if you can i would pave it and use hemcore/easibed. It needs to be at least surrounded by some sort of paver or concrete so foxs cant dig in.

I would also have the big door opening inwards that way when you open it you sort of push them in and its not so easy for them to escape, although I know others prefer it opening out.

Are you having a pophole door for them?

Use 1" mesh, that way no unwanted visitors can get in. Best/cheapest place is Hills of Devon.

[Gelbel]

I would also have the big door opening inwards that way when you open it you sort of push them in and its not so easy for them to escape, although I know others prefer it opening out.

Funny isn't it - outwards was always an option for me. Means I can use the full space - my feet or hands act as shooers if the girls try to get out (hark at me - only had it up 2 days ).

 

I'd agree with chick wiggle on everything else.

 

One tip - DO NOT under estimate how long it will take you to build it (think of the time and triple it) and measure, measure, measure.

[Tutti Frutti]

does anyone have any suggestions from past experience on what we should or shouldn't consider?

 

Yep! Lots here

[annettec]

I agree with all the above !

Ours has taken hours of planning and we are on our third weekend of building although just the roof to go on now.

We used Hills of Devon for mesh and shopped around for wood managed to get it for as little as 60p a metre for 38x50 pressure treated.( initially were quoted £1.60 a metre so worth getting on the phone )

It is very satisfying though can't wait to see it occupied !

[Ain't Nobody Here]

One thing I did, which works well, is to put a large paving slab just inside the door with a long-handled brush beside it. That way you can brush away the bedding & poo and have somewhere clean to step while putting the feeders in - thus no poo trailed into the house .

[chelsea]

Have boards around the whole bottom of the WIR to keep aubiose inside, I would recommend a good height as they can't half kick the stuff high!

 

I wished we paved/concreted our base also, as it would make it much easier to clean and come winter the aubiose would stay nice and dry.

[hibbyjint]

We have just recently completed our WIR - the bad weather since we've had it (snow, heavy rain, gales) has shown that pvc tarpaulins or the like are a necessity for the sides as although we have a sloping roof with clear corrugated pvc panels the bedding has still got soaked We thought we had a few months before having to worry about that but hey this is Scotland and we were soooooo wrong. We are currently trying to source the right sizes for ours - tarpaflex and allplas have very few sizes left and not the right ones so our asdvice would be order early.

 

We have a high kickplate which is fantastic for keeping the hemcore in - only downside is from our house which is on a hill (and house at bottom) you can only see their heads bobbing about so we get a good view when they decide to go on their perches. 3 out of 4 of our hens love to perch so it's not so bad. So depending on your setting we would say you might want some kickboards but have them high on 3 sides only.

 

We are also very happy with our sloping roof (has coped with the copious amounts of rain admirably - all that water running into a water butt) and stable door which makes egg collection very easy

 

Good luck with your project ......... forget about a full night's sleep until it's over!

[atsw]

We are planning to build the girls a lovely new purpose built WIR in the corner of the garden - before we start, does anyone have any suggestions from past experience on what we should or shouldn't consider?

Make the whole thing as big as you reasonably can. Mine was going to be 12' x 6', but I stretched it to 15' x 6' and I'm really pleased I did as the extra 3' has been invaluable for creating a sectioned off area at the end of the run for when we raised chicks and also the recent introduction of two new girls (neither of which was anticipated or planned before we built the WIR). Without the little bit of extra space neither of the two eventualities would have been so easy to manage.

 

Andrew

[theherd123]

Go and have a look at the materials you are thinking about using and measure them esp the roofing. We used the plastic corrugated sheet and had to over lap them in difficult places and ended up buying more we first estimated.

 

Also make the door big enough to move the eglu/cube in and out without having to dismantle it - sounds simple but an easy mistake to make