What makes a chicken coop easy to live with?

[jeshen]

I just got my first 3 chickens yesterday - 2 lavender pekins and 1 black pekin. They're delightful and already seem very tame. I noticed that one of them roosted in the nestbox last night. I'd put woodshavings in it and this morning a lot of the shavings had fallen out through the hole at the base of the nestbox on to the ground outside. It occurred to me that mice could possibly get into the eglu through this hole. Has anyone experienced this? Should I block up the hole in some way?

[fluffy chick]

Shouldn't really be an issue unless they find food in there as they follow their noses so to speak. But not sure why it's there ....... bit of a pain really as mine is constantly full of rubbish.

 

Oh and great choice of birds !

[jlo]

Likewise - never had an issue with mice coming through there. Mine just gets bunged up with aubiose!

[percy049]

Mine get all bunged up too, and underneath the base of the house is covered in snails in the winter! In the nest box, the holes doesnt drain away all the water though, as it is flat at the bottom. It doesnt help that the hole is stuffed with straw!

[Sam]

When I scrub the nest box all the water just drains down the hole, then I just have to simply wipe it. I like the hole haha.

 

Never had a problem with mice

[Redwing]

Mice can get through the run mesh to get to the food far easier

[Tweety]

In general I don't think it is a problem, but I was very unlucky last year and a predator did get in through the nesting box hole and killed one of my bantams and injured another. As a result, I stuff wire wool into the hole to try to prevent the unlikely chance of it happening again.

 

I had a rat problem at the time, which has now been dealt with, and have had no worries since.

[Deb Dav]

We had a problem with rats a couple of years ago, getting in through the nest box hole... in actual fact the rats gnawed at the hole to make it bigger. Living in the country and with the garden backing onto farmers field we did expect some rats.

 

My OH modified the eglu by attaching a square piece of metal mesh like so...

 

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.447904405978.242274.713455978

 

plus we laid the eglu on top of another piece of wire mesh so as the rats couldn't burrow underneath

Since I have sold the eglu and now have a cube

[jeshen]

Thanks for these replies. It sounds as if we shouldn't have a problem, but we've decided to put wire mesh underneath the eglu to stop any potential rats/mice burrowing. We live next door to a farm and I guess they're bound to be around....