Sooo much pooping

[chickchock]

I am sure this must have been asked before but I couldn't find it on a search so apologies if I'm going over old ground.

 

I love the Eglus but can't afford a new one. I do really love the look of the wooden ones too and have seen some on eggshell.co.uk that claim to be fox proof and are much cheaper.

 

Can anyone please help me out with the pros and cons of eglu vs wooden? Do the wooden ones require retreating every year? Why are they more difficult to clean than the Eglu? I am just wondering whether to start with a wooden one, or whether I would regret it and wish I had waited until a 2nd hand Eglu cropped up.

[PoachedPlease]

I love the design of the eglu and it sounds easy to clean..but we bought a wooden one as its bigger and you can just keep adding chickens! I also think the eglu runs are poor because the chickens can't roost. Mine spend a lot of their time in the run roosting ona perch.

 

The eglu would be good if you are on holiday, then you can leave it with family, I have to have a chicken sitter.

 

Xx

Edited June 17, 2013 by Guest

[auntielizzie]

You need to think about how many chickens you want first in order to decide if an eglu is big enough. Once you have decided on how many chickens you want then think about the housing. If you want to start with a couple but possibly add some more as you get in to it, then you might want to plan ahead. My experience with the eglu [i have an eglu for intros] and the small wooden houses is that you may find it awkward bending down or on hands and knees to clean them so, if you suffer with back ache at all, bear that in mind. I have a wooden house with integral run which is big enough for me to stand up inside the [but cost £500]. Also, I could have up to six large girls for the size of the coop although the roosting area is suitable for 10! It is fairly easy to keep clean, although an eglu or cube are easier from the point of view that you can blitz them with a power wash. Have to frequently liberally dust with diatom to avoid red mite. No type of house is 100% fox proof no matter what the seller says .... This would seem to include the eglu going by recent posts on this forum. I now have my house on a solid slab base, partly prompted by a recent rat problem which I am finding easier to keep the coop clean rather than when it was in bare ground. Really it's down to personal choice and how much space you have and how much you want to spend. Also, you get what you pay for, as with anything else!

 

Now, if I could have anything I wanted then I would have a pink cube in a made to measure large walk in run built on slabs [i can dream].

 

Hope this gives you some ideas ... It's difficult to decide but I'm sure you'll love your chickens whatever you choose!

 

Ps I haven't treated my house yet, but it will need doing probably in the spring so I have no experience with that yet [the house will be three years old by then]

[Chicken deficient]

I think the point with Eglus and cleaning are that there are less places for red mite to hide - they go in all the nooks and crannies of wood, making Eglus much easier and quicker to clean thoroughly. Also, when you do a thorough clean / disinfect / treat for red mite etc, Eglus are dry and ready to go as soon as you've finished cleaning, whilst a wooden coop would stay damp for considerably longer. (Dampness is not good for chickens).

 

Also, Eglus are very well thought out in terms of being user friendly. I am sure plenty of wooden ones are too, but some definitely are not!

 

I can think of a few wooden houses that I would be very happy with, but they all seem to cost a similar amount to Eglus / Cubes for similar chicken capacities. I think you get what you pay for and that the cheaper wooden houses may be perfectly adequate, (lots of people make their own coops from bits of s"Ooops, word censored!"), but perhaps won't be as user friendly and won't last as long.

Some wooden houses would need treating regularly and soon after buying, others are pressure treated / tanalised and could go longer before needing maintenance, but the manufacturer should advise which is the case.

 

If you are not sure, you could probably pick up a second hand wooden house for peanuts, but you'd need to thoroughly disinfect it and treat it very carefully for red mite before you put your own birds in it.

[good_egg]

I have a cube and neighbours have a wooden house... Ours comes apart really easily (poo trays, roosting bars etc out) can be hosed down and then sprayed with antibacterial and dried. We only hose the inside every 6 months as in a WIR but do spray and scrub etc... The wooden house doesn't come apart so not Neely as easy in that sense (although some do) and can't be hosed and scrubbed in the same way.. Think cleaning a wooden chopping board vs cleaning a plastic one (without any bad chicken connotations)...

[Redwing]

Poor quality chicken coops are probably top of the reasons why chickens become hard work for people and why they give them up. Poor wood quality, hinges, doors falling off, roofs leaking, red mite impossible to eradicate because of the design, felt roofs, poor quality mesh, doors torn off by foxes, warping, rotting etc etc

 

I have both wooden coops and Eglus and like them all - the reason is that they are ALL well designed and of reasonable to good quality

 

I would say tactfully to look at something more expensive than your suggested ones, Littleacre, Forsham, Wells Poultry and Flyte so Fancy make good wooden coops. Solway make nice plastic coops.

 

You can often pick up Eglus secondhand so worth a look especially if you can collect and travel a reasonable distance

[merlina]

I started with one of these

 

http://valleyfarmpetspoultry.vpweb.co.uk/Chicken-Arks---Starter-Packs.html

 

It cost about £150, delivered locally.

 

I began with 3 hens and I think it was a great starting home. The hens live 'up top' and can run around below, although there's not really enough room to leave them like that (imho) on an everyday basis.

 

I put bricks around the edge of it to deter foxes/rats. It's very heavy, so nothing could easily lift it - unlike some that I've seen for sale which do seem very flimsy - so be careful if buying online.

 

I drench it in diatom (and have done since I got it) and haven't had any red mite problems. It's easy to move around the garden every few weeks and easy to clean

 

I've had it for two years and it's doing very well. I'm pleased with it, but my main gripe is that because of the shape, there's no easy way to add a run.

 

So I got a cube

 

I'm finding that easier to clean, just because poo scrubs off plastic much easier than wood. Would I pay full price for one? Probably not (I bought mine from the 'for sale' ads on the forum).

I do expect that it will last longer than the wooden ark, and the good thing about eglus is that if you do decide that you don't want to keep hens anymore, they have a good resale value (unlike wooden homes) - because they are easy to clean and take apart and move

(personally I wouldn't be keen on a second-hand wooden home)

[PoachedPlease]

This is interesting, as the eglu seems to be all about the cleaning. I.e. how easy it is for the owners..but what about the chickens?

 

It seems to depend what you are comparing the eglus with. The eglu coops and runs do seem very small compared to the wooden coops and runs, and the standard package is comparable with an ark rather than a coop and WIR? I think many owners move on quite quickly from that as the basic eglu and run once they realise how limiting its size is. Once we've added our eglu fencing and extended runs etc, it might be better to start again with the largest WIR possible and an expensive long lasting coop, plastic or wooden!

 

Xx

[Chicken deficient]

In addition to Redwing's suggestions, (which cover the wooden houses on my 'wouldn't mind one of those' list), I also think these look great, but again, probably no cheaper than an Eglu!

 

http://www.hen-house.co.uk/html/poultry_housing.html

[Leeloo]

This is interesting, as the eglu seems to be all about the cleaning. I.e. how easy it is for the owners..but what about the chickens?

 

I was bored a few weeks ago and started reading Eglu reviews on the Internet. One guy said that he used to work at a garden center and they had a flock of chickens who were allowed to sleep in any of the display models. He said they preferred the Eglu and piled in to the point that it was overloaded! He said another brand of plastic coop was their second choice. He didn't say what model Eglu. I assumed he meant the classic.