Poorly chicken

[AnneEgg]

Morning!

I had a Classic Eglu several years ago, but haven't had chooks for a while, or posted here for a while (no idea what my account name was back then either, so I'm showing as a complete newbie!).

Our local town has a housing estate with an increasing chook problem - I'd like to go and collect a few before they are either run over or destroyed by the RSPCA, but the return of chooks to my life wasn't quite planned just yet and I will need to get a coop and run before I attempt any rescue.  I'm looking at the Cube, but I'm not sure I have the funds for a brand new one and am looking at secondhand ones.  I need to know whether the Mk1 and MK2 are interchangeable regarding spares, run fixings etc - I don't want to buy a secondhand one with only 1 or 2m run, only to find I can't extend the space!  I've found a post on here about MK1 and MK2 Eglu differences, but I'm not sure about the Cube...

So, 2 questions...  

Please can anyone tell me about the Cube differences as above?

And does anyone have a set-up they would like to sell to me?  The bigger the better in terms of run length, walk-in extensions... anything!  Hit me with what you got lol  I'm in S Norfolk, but I have access to a van and can travel

Thanks for reading, guys!

[The Dogmother]

Good to hear that you're 'returning to chickens'.

The newer cubes (mark 2) are quite different from the original, and judging by feedback I have seen online, I would suggest getting a mark 1 if you cane find one anywhere. There are wanted and for sale sections on this forum, and ebay usually has a fairly brisk trade in them.

Good luck, and do let us know how you get on... where are these chooks coming from?

[AnneEgg]

Thanks for your reply

Are the Mk 1's all plastic?  No wooden roosting bars etc?  I can see that someone on here has had an attempted theft of a Mk 1 and is struggling to find spares to repair it (I will mention on their post that they should check eBay - I was looking on there myself this morning.  Do you know if the stand-up run will fix easily to the standard Mk 1 run?  That would be the ideal way to increase their space.

The chooks are the rapidly-increasing offspring from a rooster and hen left behind by some total herberts who moved out and left them!  

[Patricia W]

Mark 1s are all plastic and in my view, sturdier and aesthetically more pleasing than the Mark 2.  I’m guessing that the Mark 2 is cheaper to manufacture.  So I’d go for a Mark 1 anyway.  I have two.  One is 10years old, the green is faded but that’s it;  the second is blue and at least 12 years old.  It doesn’t seem faded at all.   I don’t think parts are interchangeable. 

My only cticism of them ( both models) is that I haven’t found the runs rodent proof.  But I doubt anything other than very small gauge weldmesh is. 

Good luck in your search. 

[AnneEgg]

Thank you for the info xxx