How many chickens in Eglu Cube

[Jeanrdow]

The above says it all. What a fantastic home for my ladies - and they love it! I had worried a little about the ladder as they are all exbatts, but first evening, after a day building the cube with my dad, where our five ladies offered lots of assistance!, I put them all to bed by lifting them in. Three snuggled into laying boxes and two immediately attempted to trot back out down the stairs. One staggered down them, the other did they equivalent of "sliding down the bannister". Next night I thought I'd leave them and see what happened, when I went out at dusk, all five were up the ladder and tucked in! They had spent the whole day jumping up and off the ladder, obviously practicing.

 

It just looks superb and they obviously love it. One lady who hasn't laid for two weeks produced an egg the second morning. I am very impressed with the quality of it. Building it was hysterical. My dad had his shoe laces undone three times! Every new piece of it we brought out had five sets of beady eyes inspect it before being added to the build. and it just looks superb in the garden. Even our neighbour who has hens but is very precious about never having a plastic hen house went away trying to decide if hers would be green or red. What a good investment I say.

[Snowy]

Glad you and your girls are pleased with the cube. I wouldn't be without mine

[mollyripkim]

Glad you are pleased with your cube too, I absolutely love mine as well, it makes life so much easier. Made me smile thinking of your girls practicing the ladder

[Duncan08]

Mine arrived yesterday, all assembled, but being added to WIR still currently under contruction.

I'm not allowed to have a good play about with it and can only look from afar as it is my christmas present.

I cant wait to get it all up and running. At the mo we have the attached to a 4m run, and after laying we take the back off for the girls to go out into their FR "paddock", because of all the mud, being tracked backwards and forwards the inside of the go is trashed within 10 minutes of cleaning out

Looking forward to the pleasure of having a cleaner house, hopefully most of the mud will knock off as they walk up the ladder, maybe I should put a mat at the bottom so they can wipe their feet.

I still need to lay the base, going for half block paving / half soil covered in Wood chip to try and reduce some of the mess.

Also looking forward to not having to kneel in the mud to collect eggs. And the Poo Trays look much easier to clean out too.

Soooo Excited. I am off work next week so guess what I will be doing

[Jeanrdow]

That all sounds very exciting. We have just put down stone chips covered by wood chips to try to reduce the mud bath. So far so good. Looks fab and is mud free. Test will be how I clean poo from it. Planning on the garden hose I think! It is so exciting. I've just put up their Christmas lights round it!!! I know, don't say it, I'm a doxy, but I want them to have some festive fun. Xx

[LolaLayla]

I have an eglu but often think about getting a cube It is lovely to hear about your girls exploring and getting settled in

[Duncan08]

Now Jean I think you are on to something. I have been concerned about digging out and cementing in the holding stones for the block paving as I just can't see the cement going off in this weather. BUT, for now I could simply dig out some of the mud and fill in with stone chippings and wood chippings and use the edging stones as my anti tunnel skirt.

That will certainly get me up and running much more quickly!

[Jeanrdow]

Yes that would be much quicker. As you said it's very cold to get cement setting. It's looks great and seems very effective so far. Good luck, let us know how it goes.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Great description of your new cube, Jean . Glad you're so pleased with it .

[Cooks]

If it's any reassurance m husband laid my concrete base in the winter and it's fine

 

I would have it any other way, the mud was waaaay too hard on my back. Since having the cube and concrete base my back hasn't been anywhere near as bad

[Duncan08]

Jeanrdow, just wanted to let you know I went with your idea.

I have laid some slabs, (just laid on ground not cemented in) directly under the cube, but in the main run have dug out the mud, filled with a thick layer of gravel and then a thick layer of easibed wood chip on top of that, because the run area is generally dry it is working really well. It has been down for over a week now, is really easy to pick out the poo, although I would say that the girls have managed to dig through the easibed and stir in the gravel, they don't seem to have stirred up much dirt. Because it has a roof and is reasonably dry, it is working very well indeed.

Thanks for the tip, I would still be at it at easter if I had gone with the paving

I have posted some pics on My New Home thread.

 

And I totally agree - I am loving my new Cube - it is brilliant