Eglu/Omlet concerns/warning

[mamajos]

Also, this is a very old thread, and you might get more answers by starting your own thread.

 

[Spikeandbean]

Greetings, all!
Our neighbor's Barred Rock comes over to our garage every morning and hops up into an open cupboard right next to the door and leaves her egg. She's big and feisty, so we became smitten with the breed.

We wanted to get BR pullets and were looking at the Large Eglu Cube on a stand which we'd place inside 10x20x6.4 run from Amazon.

BIG Question:
would the cube hold 5-6 full grown BRs COMFORTABLEY????

The run will be situated N-S. We'd be covering the run with Shade cloth in the summer as necessary, and tarp in the winter to keep the run dry-er. Lots of wet stuff in the Portland are.

Since the coop is smaller, we'd probably use hemp bedding for the droppings and egg nest along with some nesting herbs.

You're going to get a lot of "nos" from the BYCers and 100% "yesses" from the Omlet-owners' Facebook group (I do recommend checking out the group, if you're on FB). There are people with more than 6(!) full-sized chickens in the Eglu Cube who swear it's all fine. I've heard enough stories on BYC, though, to think 4 would be better. So here's my experience, in case it's helpful:

I have an Eglu Cube with 6 full-sized chickens (1 BR among them), and they are doing well so far. This could change, though, so I'm keeping a close eye. Six in the Cube leaves me very few options in the event that someone needs space or gets injured, and integrating new chickens down the road would be very difficult in such close quarters. (I'd probably buy or build a second coop.) My BR is definitely the biggest girl in the group (others are RIR, EE, & Dominiques), so you might consider a slightly smaller breed, if you're committed to 6 birds. My Dominiques, for example, are a bit smaller but have amazing personalities and have the awesome barring patterns you'd see in a BR. Here are a few things I've done to help make the set-up work:

1. predator-safe run with 24/7 run access (144 sq ft)
2. lots of logs, extra roosts, etc. in the run
3. access to part of the yard for more enrichment (lots of bushes, etc.)
4. extra nesting box in the run, just in case

Lastly, I should note that I live in northern California, so the climate is mild. Our summers can be really hot (triple digits frequently, with 80's at night) but without the humidity you'd see in other parts of the country. The girls have zero need, weather-wise, to spend time in the coop besides sleeping and laying. I know people with cubes in other parts of the country who make it work fine. But personally, I wouldn't have considered it without knowing they could be in the run anytime (and even roost there at night, if they got too hot).

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

 

[deidreg]

Hello @Aunt Tat! I own an Eglu Cube with an attached walk in run and love it. I planned on four standard hens, then ended up taking in a fifth hen who needed rehoming. Five is pushing it, but it's been fine. I would not recommend putting six in the Cube.

 

[deidreg]

@Spikeandbean thanks for sharing. I live in CT and decided to treat the Eglu Cube and attached 6' run as the full coop. I reinforced with hardware cloth and tarps to protect them from the cold. (See below.) It works great.

 

[Aunt Tat]

Yeah. We realized that today, that it would be too small for 5-6 big Barred Rock ladies!
We're looking at other options.

Thank you for your reply

 

[Aunt Tat]

Hello @Aunt Tat! I own an Eglu Cube with an attached walk in run and love it. I planned on four standard hens, then ended up taking in a fifth hen who needed rehoming. Five is pushing it, but it's been fine. I would not recommend putting six in the Cube.

LOL...when my husband met me I had 14 cats (live in a half acre) and one dog.
By the time he moved in with me I had 16 cats and 2 guinea pigs

Then, we had TWO dogs.
Then someone dumped a dog on us - 3 dogs,
THEN a pit bull...such a sweetie found us - 4 DOGS

In the meantime, I adopted to black kittens
and another kitten that had been at the vets.

I did have a couple of cats disappear or had to be euthanized.

Now we're down to 1 cat, 4 parrots (one died a couple of weeks ago...still sad about that) and our housemate's corgi.

Our neighbor's Barred Rock hens jumps the 6' fence and come over here through the doggy door, jumps up on a recycling bin and then into a cupboard by our kitchen door and leaves her egg.

So, yeah...It's true. If you build it they will come. That's why decided against the Eglu LOL

I'm looking forward to chatting chicken with you more!

 

[deidreg]

It's hilarious that your neighbor's hen has decided to gift her eggs to you. Does your neighbor know?

I have three acres of lightly wooded land with all sorts of wild critters. (No bears so far, though.) In addition to my husband, I have three house cats: Piper, Sabrina, and Greta. They get to watch "chicken TV" through a big window that overlooks the coop and run. Today, chicken TV features a nor'easter with 16" of snow expected.

 

[path.otto]

Five is fine, six might be pushing it. I consider the inside part of the Cube the roost and nest box, not the coop. If you get the extended run and keep it protected in bad weather you should be fine. I decided not to use my cube in the winter and bought a large coop from a friend because we get too much snow. I also purchased a used Go Up that "came with 4 chickens. I sold my Cube and kept the Go Up for "broody jail". I really like Omlet products for the casual backyard chicken owner. I have their covered run as well and I'm really thankful for that as we have lots of birds of prey here.

 

[Aunt Tat]

It's hilarious that your neighbor's hen has decided to gift her eggs to you. Does your neighbor know?

I have three acres of lightly wooded land with all sorts of wild critters. (No bears so far, though.) In addition to my husband, I have three house cats: Piper, Sabrina, and Greta. They get to watch "chicken TV" through a big window that overlooks the coop and run. Today, chicken TV features a nor'easter with 16" of snow expected.

Actually, our neighbor have had chickens before (they moved in a few years ago) and Jason told me he's NEVER seen a chicken just "pack a bag" and leave! Especially since she is the Alpha chicken.

They're fine with it. On Thanksgiving, she moved back to the coop for the winter. She DID leave us an egg on Christmas!

She's been coming around more regularly now-except rainy days.

I don't know which is worse...endless days of drizzle (with spotty sunshine)
OR Endless piles of snow that last through March.


I envy your property! You can go camping and use indoor plumbing!!!

 

[path.otto]

@Aunt Tat, I have two of my neighbor's chickens that decided to pack a bag and leave. Don't blame the chickens my neighbor's idea of animal husbandry differs from mine. They built a simply gorgeous coop but did nothing else to protect them from predators. When they first moved here they had about 30 chickens, a flock of guineas and turkeys. After the first year they had none left. Next year they just got chickens - 30 - and by the end of year 2 the only one remaining was Hai Hai, pictured in my avatar. She is a gorgeous white Ameraucauna going on 7 years now, I've had her for 4. This past summer I adopted their last remaining of three pullets, Henrietta. She's a Red Star and the day I went to bring her over she jumped right up on my arm and up to my shoulder. She'd never met me before! It cracked me up. After a few weeks of introduction she finally has a flock of her own. Henrietta laid her first egg the day I got her and she's laid an egg every day since. It won't last forever but it's been nice since my other's are slackers during the short days of winter.