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[tania]

I am thinking about buying an Omlet WIR and would really welcome some good honest advice/opinions from anyone that has one, or those that didn't get one due to reasons I should know about! The cost is obviously high so need to know I'm not making a very expensive mistake.

My chooks free range within a large fenced area at the moment and we have a Eglu and 2m run but when we go away for a few days and thinking already about the nights drawing in (sorry!) and not being home in time to lock them away before Mr Fox is about I think a WIR is a great idea. It will be on grass not on a slab base. Many thanks in anticipation

[LunaKiw1]

Hi, we got an Omlet WIR nearly two weeks ago. We had an Eglu Classic with 2m run, like you, for our two Omlet hens. They free range most of the day but we wanted to give them just a bit more space on days when they do have to stay inside and if we needed to go away. Our run and now the WIR is sited on a beaten earth/gravel piece of ground which is naturally covered by lots of fir cones from overhead pine trees and which we also scatter wood chips over. We use stalosan every week to freshen things up.

The WIR looks great - the green mesh and frame make it (relatively) u"Ooops, word censored!"trusive looking and the girls already seem much more 'chilled out' when inside. I can watch them from the kitchen window and they just potter around rather than constantly pacing up and down by the door as they used to in their old run. We have two Tarpaflex tarpaulins that were 2m x 2.4m which we got for the old run. (Only ordered one but two were sent so had a spare!) One of those fits perfectly across the new WIR's roof - an exact fit width-wise and with a little overlap on the other, held down with bungees. I think we'll order a 2m x 6m new one though for the winter to enclose the roof and two sides. Then if it is really wet I might also hang the older tarpaulin down the back. We've kept the Omlet shade and the other tarpaulin covering the old run - sort of polytunnel effect. I'm no good at photos so you'll have to take my word for it that it looks all very neat and not ramshackle at all. The girls seem to like having the choice of the main WIR area for moving around or sitting in the shade in the old run.

My OH constructed the run with me observing and mopping his brow. He didn't find the instructions that easy to follow as they are entirely visual. He said even just a few words of expanation would have been helpful. so it took about 7 hours spread over 2 days to erect it and his fingers and thumbs were raw from the number of Omlet plastic clips that he had to use to join everything together. So how anyone could do it in 2 hours is beyond me! But it is very stable and, as our ground isn't fully level, it is quite forgiving of undulations in the ground.

All in all, it was expensive but it looks good, is certainly more spacious and it is so lovely to be able to just walk inside and poo-pick or put their grub and glug in without having to bend down. We're really very pleased with the end result. Hope that helps!

[Olly]

You might find this thread helpful as well.

[tania]

Thanks to both of you. LunaKiw1, do you think there's enough room for 5? They won't be locked in there all day every day but I'd stress if they were cramped when they did have to be kept in.

[LunaKiw1]

Hi,

I'm sure 5 would be fine because there is 6 sq m when you include the length of the Eglu run. We're thinking about getting another 2 chooks certainly as I worry about what happens when one of our 2 dies (they're 2 and a half now) and so would like to increase the flock now. I think it will be easy to partition off a part of the WIR to allow for the introduction of newbies too.

[tania]

Hi thank you. We lost one of our chooks recently and our cockerel was bereft so we got the 3 little brown hens, he's just fine now with 4 to fuss over. I think, and this is only my opinion, if you can it's nice to have more as they do like to flock. Looks like Omlet are about to get a 'phone call for a WIR.

[LunaKiw1]

My OH just passes on the following tip: make sure when you hang the door that its top edge is totally level with the top of the sides - sounds logical but it seems you really have to attach it lower than seems to be appropriate according to the diagram. He had to take ours off and re-attach it at one point - a painful experience with all the clips! And he reckoned on it taking nearer to 9 or 10 hours. But he also agrees it was well worth it despite the aggro and high cost - so good luck and post news when you've got it. (It came quickly too!)

[Chookiepie]

Very pleased with the walk in run. Reasonably easy to assemble.Yes ,it is pricey but if you aren't an expert at diy it's ideal. We have added ours on to a 3 metre cube run for our 8 rescue hens. The cube and run are on rubber grass mats (covered with wood chips) as we didn't really want to lay concrete slabs on the grass and the mats provide a good base as our grass can become rather boggy when it's wet.

[gramo]

I've been using a wooden arc with small run, inside a moveable roll or electric netting. We have a large plot, so I like to move them around and give them grass and plenty of space (but not free range because of the plants) But I think I should get some sort of walk-in run. Is the WIR fixed or easy to move round the garden?

[LunaKiw1]

The Omlet WIR doesn't HAVE to be fixed to the ground but we have used ground pegs to just hold the edges down in a few places. I suppose in theory it is moveable - certainly compared to a permanently built wooden WIR but in practice i don't think you'd want to lift and shift it round apart from if you really needed to. Definitely not like moving the Eglu & run around (and that's easier said than done!)

[scarlettohara]

Use a 2p coin for the clips - saves your fingers