Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[Abs chooks]

Hello,

My name is Abby and i have just bought a second hand eglu classic in the hope to get my girls in a few weeks time. I'm really pleased with it I have a few questions though....

We have 2 dogs and at the moment the eglu is on a base of shingle in the garden. I am wanting to section a run off for them so that the dogs don't scare them.. would a picket fence be too low and is it essential to have a net on the top? I have thought of putting trelis(with chicken wire ) up with a gate, is this more suitable do you think?

Thanks

Abby x

[Olly]

Hi Abby, welcome to the forum and congratulations on getting your first Eglu.

 

I'm not quite clear what you want - is this to keep the dogs away from the hens, or just to give them their own space? It does partly depend on what sort of dogs you have - experience from others on here tends to suggest that while some dogs can be trained not to chase, with other breeds - greyhounds for example - you just can't ever trust them. To that extent I am not sure that chicken wire would be enough.

 

If you just want to keep the hens from wandering all over the garden, then chicken wire will work ok to keep them in but remember it is not fox proof. Provided it's high enough - 3' or so - then you shouldn't need a net over it. Hens can't fly directly off the ground very easily but they can flap up on to compost bins, picnic tables or even the top of the Eglu and use that as a launch-pad so it's important to make sure there's nothing like that in range!

 

Give us more idea of what you want to do with the run, and you're sure to get some more suggestions on here of things other people have used.

[Abs chooks]

Hi Olly

Thanks for the reply :)Sorry I'm not clear!! I'm hoping to have an area just for the girls and not let the dogs in this area. I have an area where our trampoline was so am using this. Now you've said they can jump off the eglu then I think I need to look at a walk in run solution. My idea was to put trellis up with chicken wire attached to one

Side. Do you know what Mean? One of my dogs needs to be trained to be around the chooks.

Abby

[chick wiggle]

Hi Abby and welcome to the forum and congratulations on choosing your eglu

You dont say if it was with the run or not?

If you wanted to keep your chickens to one area of the garden just for freeranging, a trellis with chicken wire will do fine as long as theres no gaps, i guarantee the chickens will find it if there is If you dont have a run with your classic you will need something more secure for when you are out to protect them from any predators, foxes to be precise.

Good luck and let us know how you get on and when you get your chickens