What makes a chicken coop easy to live with?

[Fatfish]

Hi all,

 

New to this forum but not to hen keeping! I have 5 beautiful ex-batts living in my garden and I brought them a nice safe cube and run following a run in with a fox! I mostly built the cube and run before pulling apart their old run and moving the cube into it's place. When I came to fixing on the run extension I discovered that not only was the top piece of the end panal missing leaving a large gap at the top but the door was not attached to the panel, there were no instuctions even slightly refering to this and there does not appear to be anyway of locking the door closed. To make matters worse the omlete people seem to have all disappeared for the easter (call me picky, I'm a nurse and this is the first easter weekend I haven't worked in about 5 years, surely they could have a skeleton staff on at least one of the days?!). I worked out the door was probably hung with the run clips and I've used the skirting from the bottom to temporarily cover up the top. I'm keeping the door closed with old sticks cramed into the bars and string.

 

How should the run door lock? I can't find reference to it anywhere! It looks like a part is missing, maybe a bar to slide down through all the tab thingies?

 

Can anyone tell me how good Omelet are at rushing out missing parts? I'm away next weekend and certainly don't feel too good about the current set up! Do you think they'll dispatch the missing part(s) ASAP as it's their error?

 

I will say that other that this I am very pleased with the cube! The girls are a little perplexed by the ladder and needed helping in last night and out this morning but two of them seem to be getting the hang of it at least! It feels really secure locking them in to the cube, it would be one cunning fox that gets in there! (although your average daft fox would walk right under the end of my run right now!) They LOVE the Glug and Grub feeders. I wasn't sure they'd work them out straight away so placed their old water bowls and feeder in the run, there was a fight over the Grub feeder! The lower chickens have been assigned to the old feeder while the head hens all but appear to have their heads stuck in the Grub feeder.

 

Anyway, thanks in advance for any tips or suggestions, this missing part buisiness has ruined what otherwise would have been a very pleasing product!

[AndreaT]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

 

What a shame that you have some parts missing, not a good start to your Cube owing days!. I don't have the cube run but if it anything like the Go run then you are correct in that the door is attached using some run clips. There should be a long metal 'pin' which is used to keep the door closed through the loops and hooks.

 

Omlet are usually pretty good with their customer service and I'm sure that once you get hold of them on Tuesday they will send the missing parts out to you immediately.

 

Once you're all sorted don't forget some photos, it's the law!

[Kazzy73]

there should be two long green pins to keep the door closed and shouls fit through two of the sticky out tab thingys (hope makes sense) sorry havent had to phone omlet when got my cube all was ok but I know I had instructions in with mine,but some of my boxes were not sealed very well and could of lost them quite easily.Hope all goes well

[Lewis]

Sorry to hear that but glad you're still impressed with the rest of the Cube!

 

There's not usually someone in at the weekend anyway - not sure if they'll in tomorrow because of the bank holiday but I'd email quin@omlet.co.uk and he should sort you out a spare part.

I had a problem with my Go, sent an email and some photos and they replaced it straight away

 

It sounds like you're missing the run pins which look like this:

You can see how they work in *this* photo.

[Fatfish]

Thanks for your replies guys! Those pins are reassuring, for a moment I thought that botching it together with string was what we were meant to do! I'm more concerned with the missing panal at the moment though. I'm using the skirting panals from the bottom to cover the gap at the top, it makes the bottom quite easy to penetrate for a nasty fox!

 

My girls seem really happy with their cube though, last night all four of them put themselves to bed by them selves! *proud* Even Chico, my rather daft second-in-control managed it eventually! I had a little sneak peak at them as I was locking them in, all four snuggled together in the nesting box, too cute for words! This morning though poor Esteban fell off the lader on her way down. She seems insistant on walking down the edges not the rungs, silly girl! Luckily she wasn't hurt.

 

I'm a tad worried about my fifth hen who's currently living in a cage in my living room, kicking sawdust everywhere and creating a huge smell because she's recovering from a broken toe. The vet says she might always have a limp and be a bit off that foot - will she cope with the ladder?!

 

Well here's hoping I get through to them tomorrow, I'm working a 15 hour shift inside a prison where I'm not allowed a mobile phone and all calls have to go through switch board - they'd better pick up quickly!