Chicken coops?

[garth mc garth]

I saw one of these in a customers garden a while back. Pricey but no carpentry skills needed.

Eglu Cube | Introduction | Products and Services | Omlet UK

 

 

My parents sell them in the farm shop, like you say they are overpriced for what they are, not really big enough for the amount of birds they specify they can hold either.

[Saw-sick Steve]

use heras fencing with bottom bit buried to stop mr fox digging under

I've had a fox climb Heras panels before - 'leccy wire along the top soon solved the problem. Expensive and annoying when they do get in / under / around your defences though...

[armchairarborist]

can use heras fencing as a roof too then(might need two), all held together with cable ties of course, the half inch ones are considered structural round here..

[Big J]

Christ those Eglu cubes are expensive!

 

Made a 4ft x 4ft chicken house for my neighbours from self milled cedar. It came out really nicely, though weighs an tonne! Might be due to the 1 inch walls and 2 inch floor. Required a forklift at both ends for uplift!

[stoker-steam]

I have had chickens for years, we have six Ex Batts at present.

 

I would agree with the other posts, do not bother with these tiny coops that say they will house ten birds they are very flimsy and not big enough.

 

You have to be a contorsionist to clean them out, never mind getting the eggs.

 

I would go down the route of a Garden Shed, build your coop bit inside the shed with a steel pop hatch leading out to a fully wired outside run, if you can place the run on concrete or slabs.

 

If its on soil it soon spoils and gets full of nasty things that will do your birds in, oh and it stinks

 

This means you can have your feed bins in the shed, you can clean them out in any weather and you do not have to be as flexible as a gymnast.

 

 

 

 

 

I do have roosting perches, but I can not get the birds to stay on them, I have been told this is common with Ex Batts.

 

So I took them out and just keep the bedding clean, the shed cost £117 from Flea Bay and all the wire was scrounged from a skip. My only problem has been rats eating through the shed floor, traps has sorted this for now.

[Saw-sick Steve]

can use heras fencing as a roof too then(might need two), all held together with cable ties of course, the half inch ones are considered structural round here..

 

You'd need a fair few panels to cover my chooks' run - it covers 1/4 acre!

R.E housing ; I always have the houses at least 18'' off the ground - solves the rat problem every time.

[Stevie Mac]

Thanks for all the replies people. Am going to have a rummage around in my father in laws garage and see what wood I can borrow.