Sooo much pooping

[Tutti Frutti]

Just being nosey really! Just ondering what we do when we go out (work, shopping etc), how many of us still follow the Omlet dream ("move your chooks around in the run") and how many of us realised what mini lawnmowers/rotavators they are and made a permanent site!

[Pipichick]

Have cast my vote. We tried the Omlet dream but quickly realised we would run out of lawn to site the run So the cube now sits on a permanent base of slabs... Much more lawn friendly

[Tutti Frutti]

I think I've figured why we've veered away from the "Omlet dream" in their brochure

 

They market the dream as a few chooks in an Eglu/run combo and then moving them around a lush, green lawn. Which could work fine but ONLY if you stick to two or three

 

Therein lies the problem. It's impossible to stick to 2 or 3 so you soon need a bigger run and then you want to spend time with your little flock and then you want to make poo-picking easier... so your mobile set up becomes a permanent WIR - job jobbed

[Chickybocker Glory]

Hi,

 

My first (!) two lovely chooks started off in an Eglu on the lawn re the Omlet dream. That lasted eighteen months of patient moving, raking etc. until my nieces, nephew and neighbours' children began to disappear before our very eyes into the bomb craters that the chooks had dug...

 

They now have a deluxe 8 square metre WIR on bark which is on sand, so free-draining etc. We do not have a fox problem (probably due to the two lively and vocal labradors we own) so they are in an Eglu minus its run in there. However, not being content with just two hens, I now have two youngsters in there too, housed in a Cube until they are old enough to mingle with old cantakerous beasties. Well, they are cantankerous with the youngsters and positively lovely with us! Meal worms are helping with the integration issue, though the youngsters will have to remain separate for quite a while longer... Four quail arrive on 2nd July which has prompted purchase of a second Eglu...

 

When will it end?! Please don't answer that...

[JulesL]

Yep, we are the same. Tried to keep them in the Eglu classic run, moving them around the lawn every few days but the lawn was being completely trashed. We had a corner of the garden which was pretty unsuable due to a couple of small trees and a conifer so we decided to put the Eglu between the trees (fits really snuggly) and then built an open top WIR around it so the area is pretty big now. The only problem is is that we cannot put a roof on top of the WIR all the way (1/3 of it is covered) due to the trees.

 

We are just finding that we are constantly having to do something to it, adjust it, etc, due to naughty chooks jumping off the Eglu run onto the top of the WIR and then over onto the lawn! This weekend we made the 4ft up to 6ft.

 

I'd love now to have more chooks and a cube

[prof]

mine free range all the time, when im at home, when im at work (ft).....even when im away on holiday.....(i have a gr8 neighbour and gr8 chicken mummy who pops across the road and lets them out and they free range away in a fenced area (thus i still have a garden and lawn) ). i have an eglu with standard run, and a cube with 3m run. we luckily dont have a fox problem (fingers crossed!) and we too have a lab and staffie cross who hopefully put off any foxes!