Re: Eglu pros and cons

Sally Thompson wrote:
Hi, first posting here but I have been reading this group for some
time doing my homework<g>.

Hi and welcome to the group and your new addiction <grin>

We have just over an acre of fairly wild
ground and I would really really like two or three hens to play with
and to give me eggs. A neighbour has a smallholding where I help
occasionally with the hens and ducks when he is away, so I have some
little idea of what is involved. However, although I would eventually
like the hens to run freely over our whole piece of land, at present
it is not all fenced as necessary, and there are foxes and badgers in
this rural area.

We all have foxes and other predators.
IF you are rural then you are less likely to have daytime ones so you will
be like all the rest of us who can happily let our birds out free ranging
during the day time without any need for pens but MUST religiously shut the
birds into the house at night.


I know of someone on another group who highly recommends the Eglu or
Eglu cube, and of course this is an instant house with an apparently
fox-resistant run,

All bought poultry houses are instant, even if they need a few screws to get
them there. :)

so the hens would be comparatively safe in the run

Weldmesh runs are secure and larger.
An electric fenced paddock would be far more suitable, if you REALLY think
you have a daytime predator threat.
You have lots of space, chickens do not care where their humans are.
If you have daytime predators, it will make no difference to them whether
you are at home or not. They will strike.
So to give your birds a good quality of life and to make use of the space
you have I would strongly recommend electric fencing.

if we are not around during the daytime and could be let roam a
little while we are attending to the ultimate fox-proof fencing (not
an easy task!). This also lets my not-very-keen-husband off making a
hen house.

Without a lot of experience home made houses tend to be lacking in essential
design points <g>

The neighbour with a smallholding has offered me some of
his hens for nothing (he is concentrating on his ducks), so the Eglu
might be a convenient way to go - but at such a price!

I like the houses for chickens to use to have a really good area of bedding,
it is an essential in the British climate, especially when birds are roaming
around paddocks. Most of the time for much of the year the grass is damp at
best, even if its not actually raining, it can take some hours for the grass
to dry off between showers. A generous floor area of shavings allows the
worst of the dampness to be wicked off as the birds are in and out of the
house and before they settle down at night.

I like birds to be able to roost up - it does not have to be high up but up
off the ground. I don't like slats in the floor - it means there is no
decent bedding and it means that the birds are resting on their keels. It
means that there is no way for the air to circulate around them. Chickens
can be quite prone to respiratory conditions, wild birds carry a number of
bugs that can infect them. Housing condtions are one of the main modifers as
to how this affects individual birds.

Chickens do not need a highly insulated house in the UK. We have customers
with birds high up in the Cairngorms very happily in generously sized timber
houses with lots of space. Birds best defense against the cold is to be able
to fluff themselves up, nice and dry. This needs space. However being
confined and damp is a problem.

Most well designed timber houses are easy to clean. If the house is being
allowed to get in to the state that it needs washed every time then the
husbandry needs attention. With shavings as bedding, and good space in the
house then it should be a simple matter of shovel and sweep. <g>

I like birds to have space in the house for their feed. This is also now
DEFRA guidance, it means that wild birds are no sharing the good, its
getting more nad more expensive by the week and there is also the cross
contamination of disease. Feed that is outside in any way is also more
likely to attract undesirable rodents.

With Avian influenza lurking in Germany and other parts of Northern Europe
its also a good idea to have a generous area of cover. A weldmesh timber
framed run allows you to easily staple a cover over and is usually much
cheaper so allowing you to "buy more space".

I know Mary thinks the world of her Eglu and I would recommend one in her
circumstances which is a few bantams living in a city garden.
For the same [and less] money you can get a lot more henhouse and more
appropriate features for the circumstances you are offering your birds: lots
of wild area.


--

regards
Jill Bowis

Pure bred utility chickens and ducks
Housing; Equipment, Books, Videos, Gifts
Herbaceous; Herb and Alpine nursery
Working Holidays in Scotland
http://www.kintaline.co.uk







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