Eglu Go With 2m Run For Sale

[Banus]

HI all and hello as this is my first thread.

 

We've just invested in an Eglu Go and it's brilliant. We have two chickens (Miss Pepperpot and Gingernut) who are settling in nicely. No dramas to date and thanks to Roy of Omlet for setting us up. We've placed the Eglu inside a 10' x 10' run so they have room to strech their legs.

 

However, at bed time instead of going into the Eglu, we've noticed that they climb on top of the wire frame and attempt to settle there for the night - they're obviously want to roost off the ground. So on seeing this before they nod off we have to shoo them off the roof and into the eglu. Are there any tip as to how we can stop this happening?

 

Thanks all.

[clucker1]

Well, I am quite a newby too....just had our chickens for nearly a year now. If it is of any help, we literally stuffed them into the cube every night for the first 2 to 3 nights and shut the door on them and after this they got the picture. In hindsight, I feel very sorry for the girls as we had no experience of catching them and holding them. It was a grab and stuff them in scenario! They survived though!!

[Banus]

Clucker1,

 

Brilliant! Thanks for that and that's what we've had to do. Early days as we've only had them less than a week. Any more ideas on solving this one would be great!

[Mercedes55]

I think quite often when we get hens we don't know what kind of housing they've been used to, so when we bring them home and present them with their lovely Eglu they haven't a clue that they are supposed to be sleeping in there. It does seem to be a natural instinct to try and roost as high as possible too I think. We had to move our ex batts from the Cube back into their Eglu a little while ago and the first night we went to check on them and instead of them going into the Eglu they were all fast asleep on the highest shelf in their WIR as they had forgotten all about their Eglu, sometimes they don't seem too bright

[surfer_chicken]

I'd maybe think about shutting them into the eglu run a few hours before bedtime

[hopingforchickens]

I've had my girls 5 weeks today and they still roost in the WIR rather than going to bed, I just go and put them in at around 10pm. I'm hoping at some point they get the hang of it but the longer they do it the less confident I am!

[Egluntyne]

Several of mine are sleeping on top of the cube at the moment. I'm guessing that it is the hot weather. They did the same last year, but went back into the cube when it turned chillier.

[Banus]

OK. Thanks all for that and I guessed that I'm not alone on this one. It's natural for any bird to get as high as possible at night to avoid preditors so it must be a little strange for them to roost on the floor in an Eglu.

 

So.....another slight problem and another that's probably quite usual. We've got 2 chickens fom Omlet (Gingernut Ranger and Miss Pepperpot) who get on really well and never leave each others side. Now we've introduced a white Sussex of approx the same age. However this new bird is continually harrassing our other two chickens and is quite aggressive towards them chasing and pecking them and not letting them feed. So the question is. Do you just leave them to sort it out and eventually mellow towards each other and get on as this must be a nature thing, or intervene to let the Sussex know that her behaviour is just not on !

[BocBoc]

Leave them to it - only intervene if blood is drawn.

The general consensus is that you only introduce new chickens in pairs - never a lone chicken. It works for some but not for others and the little blighters can be vicious little things.

 

We have two hens out of our six that like to roost on the top of the run or even on our garden wall. It happens probably two nights a week. We just wait until they are dozy then pick them up and pop them into the run when they toddle off to bed. On the other nights they just go off to bed with the others!