Omlet Smart Autodoor - New in box

[firepoigirl1]

I, after at last buying my own house (aged 33) have a garden big enough to keep some chickens! yey!

 

I know I have alot of reading up to do, but have already decided to try and buy a 2nd hand Cube (feel free to let me know if you know of one for sale!) Im in East Sussex!

 

1st thing I'd like to ask, is the base. Does it need to be solid (i.e paving slabs) or ground with grass, or ground with pea-shingle to scratch in?

 

2nd thing, do you get red mites with Eglus?

 

3rd thing, is Plastic really that much better than Wood hen houses?

 

Am totally new, as I said, so any advice is Very welcome, even book suggestions etc so I can get as much info as poss!

 

Thank you!!

 

Sarah

[Chicken Shirl]

Hi sarah,welcome to the forum. Congratulations on getting your new home. I can't answer your questions as my hens live free over here in Tenerife. Some one will be along to give you all the advise you need soon I'm sure. So glad you are getting some chickens. Enjoy them they are adorable.

[CrazyDaizy]

Hello,

 

Congrats on getting your new home. Glad to hear you are interested in getting som echickens. We have three chickens and we keep them on what started off as grass, but with all of their pecking and digging its now just an area of bare ground. Personally I pefere this as it doesnt ruin the rest of the garden with bits of pebbles and stones and wood chipping being thrown around as they forage around.

 

I know of people who keep their chickens on wood chipping, but we didnt do that as our garden slopes so all the wood would be in a pile at the bottom of the garden and i have found that our chickens feel that anything that isnt fastened down needs moving and investigating.

 

As to red mites. We've never had red mites but we had some sort of lice that came in on one of our new chooks and it lived in the straw nest, so we don't use a straw nest anymore. So I assume you can get red mites in eglus...

 

And in my opinion plastic is alot better than wood. It's so much easier to clean, it doesnt rot or go nasty or need repainting or recoating.

 

I hope that I have helped abit. I bought "Keeping Pet Chickens by Johannes Paul and William Windham" from the onlet shop when I first started keeping chickens and I found it was really easy to understand and it also had a section on eglus aswell as other chicken houses.

 

Happy future chicken keeping

[Olly]

 

1st thing I'd like to ask, is the base. Does it need to be solid (i.e paving slabs) or ground with grass, or ground with pea-shingle to scratch in?

 

You can have slabs, in which case you'd need to put aubiose/hemcore or wood chips down so they have something to scratch in. If you have it on grass, the grass will disappear within the first week! They are fine just on ground though, as long as it doesn't get too wet and muddy.

 

2nd thing, do you get red mites with Eglus? You can get red mites, but they are much less likely (no crevices for them to live in) and it's much easier to get rid of them, as you can jet/wash and disinfect plastic.

 

3rd thing, is Plastic really that much better than Wood hen houses? I've never had a wooden house, so I can't answer that! They are much easier to clean, and I have seen quite a few people on here who've moved from wooden housing to Eglus. Some people feel a wooden house fits better in a garden setting - it's a matter of choice. I love my Eglu and would never change to wooden housing though.

 

Congratulations on getting your first home, you will love having hens - I wish I'd done it much sooner!

[Roobaloo]

I'm a new owner too....I've not even had mine a week yet!!

 

Out backyard is paved all over (except narrow flower borders that we've never used!!) so we filled an area with wood chip for them to scratch around in....and it leaves us an easy-sweep area for their food!

 

I spent a LONG time looking at housing...mainly because I didn;t think I'd ever get chickens, so I just did a lot of window shopping 'just in case'...!! When the day finally happened, I went for the Eglu Classic because it was modern, bright and cute....AS WELL as being extremely functional and 100% practical. Which was a huge must for me as I have back problems...and working in a tight/awkward/fixed space isn't good for me...

 

The Eglu is SO simple to access/open and clean...it makes everything so much easier!! I love it!! If I were ever to buy rabbits or guinea pigs again, they'd have an Eglu...wooden hutches and coops are beautiful, rustic and cosy...but the Eglu wins for me, hands down!!

[chicken bark]

I am a new chicken owner - had them about a month now and loving it.

 

I don't have an eglu (sorry) but I have a solway eco house which is also plastic.

I spent a lot of time researching which was best between wood and plastic. I decided plastic was best for me as I'm quite lazy and didn't want any house maintenance (ie weatherproofing a wooden one) and cleaning out a plastic one is much easier.

 

I have mine on grass with free-ranging in a fenced off area. I move the house every couple of days. In winter I plan to move it onto my patio and let them free range in a gravelled area (not mentioned this to my OH yet).

 

I've decided that red mite prevention may be better than cure so when I clean the house out I sprinkle diatom everywhere - I put this in the nesting box too as it can help get rid of lice.

 

Hope it all goes well for you and enjoy it all. Chickens seem to be taking over my life and I love it.

[JS1]

I have both an eglu and a wooden house. The eglu is much, much, much easier to clean (wooden one takes an age to clean and to dry). But, the advantage with the wooden house and integral run which I have is that the run is easily accessible. That means when the lighter nights come, you can reach in and pop the chickens into the house. The eglu run is pretty inaccessible, I find, so I've started tempting them out of the run so I can 'post' them in the egg port!

 

Also, all six of mine love roaming over the wooden house and run, which is pretty perfect for perching (although it does mean it gets even muckier!).

 

Sorry, I'm not being much help, but there are advantages and disadvantages with both and I'm honestly not sure which I'd choose (although when it's cleaning day the eglu wins hands down!)

 

Good luck whatever you decide - they are a joy