New Coop/Run Setup, All Suggestions Welcome! (Eglu Coop)

[CaseyGCrosbie]

Hi friends,

We are just getting our little chicken farm up and running, and I wanted to share our setup with the community for any suggestions or things I may have overlooked.

I was raised on a ranch with chickens, so I'm not a complete novice, but my parents' setup was quite different. They had a large coop with 30+ hens, designed to survive South Dakota winters. We live in the Los Angeles area and just wanted a few birds for my elementary-age kids and me to experience life a bit.

Our plan for tomorrow is to go pick up 3-4 young hens from a local market. That way, the kids have something to do while the rest of us watch the Super Bowl on Sunday. =p

I went with an Omlet Eglu coop, which I have mixed feelings about, but I hope will be easy to clean. The run space is 6x9, and we plan to experiment with letting them loose in our backyard. The biggest threat is that they fly over a fence into one of the neighbors' yards that has a dog. If they are too flightly they will have to stay in the run.

We have a ton of squirrels (daytime) and raccoons/opossums/rats (evening) because of all our bushes and trees, so I'll also have to watch how secure the run/Eglu coop ends up being. Suggestions on varmint-proof feeders or other ideas would be appreciated.

Any other general ideas are also welcome!

CGC.

 

[thecatumbrella]

Welcome to BYC, Casey!

I used an Eglu coop for 2 years. If you'd like to read about my experience (and suggestions), here's my article.

My first thoughts on the setup are: Where will the chickens go when in rains? Certainly not in the Omlet. Do you plan to add a cover for the run? Omlet does make very nice, heavy-duty ones that are perfectly fitted. I'd also suggest at least doubling the size if they'll be in there close to full time. Chickens are busy creatures. More space = more room for activities. I also have an article on building a dig box. It's very simple, and gives them a place to dust bathe or have something to dig through for goodies (like a handful of treats tossed into leaves).

Best of luck with your new feathered friends!

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

A great start! I second the suggestion of covering the run. It will help with giving them some shade as well as rain cover. Did you get the racoon locks for the omlet latches? If not, definitely will need to figure that out as the UK version (where there are no racoons) is not racoon proof. For your run, I would suggest some stable roosting spots (think like a wooden sawhorse or even a couple smaller 2x4s on logs as I have noticed adult hens don’t really like to be on anything that’s unstable or wobbly like the string ladder will be. I’m excited for you!

 

[CaseyGCrosbie]

Welcome to BYC, Casey!

I used an Eglu coop for 2 years. If you'd like to read about my experience (and suggestions), here's my article.

My first thoughts on the setup are: Where will the chickens go when in rains? Certainly not in the Omlet. Do you plan to add a cover for the run? Omlet does make very nice, heavy-duty ones that are perfectly fitted. I'd also suggest at least doubling the size if they'll be in there close to full time. Chickens are busy creatures. More space = more room for activities. I also have an article on building a dig box. It's very simple, and gives them a place to dust bathe or have something to dig through for goodies (like a handful of treats tossed into leaves).

Best of luck with your new feathered friends!

Yeah, I have the Eglu cover ordered. Was going to see if I'd end up expanding before I got the cover, but ended up just ordering it now that the family is champing at the bit to get chickens. It would be fairly easy to make my 6x9 into a 9x9 using Omlet's extensions, which will probably happen eventually.

I also have the kit to expand under the Eglu itself. Assuming we leave it 6x9 for a while. I'm guessing I'll throw that on one afternoon to provide a bit more area and to give another covered spot.

And thanks for the dig box idea! We actually have a bunch of bricks around (some of them you can see I used to weigh down and secure the run), and I'm sure I could build one from what we have.

C.

 

[CaseyGCrosbie]

A great start! I second the suggestion of covering the run. It will help with giving them some shade as well as rain cover. Did you get the racoon locks for the omlet latches? If not, definitely will need to figure that out as the UK version (where there are no racoons) is not racoon proof. For your run, I would suggest some stable roosting spots (think like a wooden sawhorse or even a couple smaller 2x4s on logs as I have noticed adult hens don’t really like to be on anything that’s unstable or wobbly like the string ladder will be. I’m excited for you!

Yeah, the kids helped pick out the ladder and are super excited about it, but in my head, I was very skeptical our chickens would want to use it (also feel like the twine will weather terribly). I was thinking I'd do 2x4s or build something out of pipe for them.

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

Yeah, the kids helped pick out the ladder and are super excited about it, but in my head, I was very skeptical our chickens would want to use it (also feel like the twine will weather terribly). I was thinking I'd do 2x4s or build something out of pipe for them.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Definitely do that! I used 12” shelf brackets to mount 2x4s and big branches along the walls of my run and the ladies love it, they hang out on them all the time. You may be able to fix a board on one side of your run to let you have a solid surface to do that? Get creative

 

[Bawkbok]

I went with an Omlet Eglu coop, which I have mixed feelings about, but I hope will be easy to clean. The run space is 6x9, and we plan to experiment with letting them loose in our backyard. The biggest threat is that they fly over a fence into one of the neighbors' yards that has a dog. If they are too flightly they will have to stay in the run.

Your setup provides enough space for 3-4 chickens but I wouldn't add more than that. We started with the Eglu Cube and quickly outgrew it and expanded to the Pro model. Depending on the breeds you chose and how large they will be at maturity, you may find 4 could be cramped in the roosting space of the Cube. To combat this problem before we upgraded to the Pro model, we removed the nesting box wall barrier to afford them more room for roosting. It just means ensuring the nest is also clean every day by removing any poop but they typically don't poop in the nesting area.

The maintenance ease of the Omlet is incredible. It also deters mites and lice given that it is constructed with plastic. In hot climates wood deteriorates faster and requires more maintenance and certainly entertains more insects. It takes us about 10 minutes daily to remove poops and wash the roost bars and trays. We also keep pine shavings in the trays which makes clean up even faster and easier.

Given the proximity of your neighbors, I would ensure you don't have breeds that tend to go flighty or they may end up in their trees / yards.

Orpingtons and Australorps are calm, quiet and generally friendly and do not go flighty which is what we chose given our circumstances with neighbors too close by as well. They are active and curious and like to roam about but they will be ok with confinement if that is what you must do.

Congratulations on your new chicken adventure and welcome to BYC.

 

[Bawkbok]

Happy to hear you ordered the tarp - pricey but you won't be disappointed. We have it on our run serving as the 'roof' at all times. It never comes off unless we are threatened by a hurricane or severe wind event, then it must be removed or it could serve as a sail in high velocity wind and it would destroy your run, although, yours seems to be heavily protected in the corner with fencing.

We ordered the swing from omlet and the girls freaked out. They never used it and actually seemed to fear it. I put our bravest chicken on it to show her what it was for and she quickly flew off. I removed it and we placed tree logs from cut trees and they perch on those all the time. We also have three of the Omlet perches in the corners and they use those all the time. We ordered those just because we invested too much time in trying to attach tree branches as perches and the Omlet ones fit perfectly into the rungs at any height.

You may find if you don't cover the larger squares with some garden netting or something else, squirrels and birds may enter the run for the food. We had a terrible problem with this and simply attached light garden netting with small zippy ties and that eliminated the problem.

 

[CaseyGCrosbie]

Updates friends!

Regarding the coop:

I used some bricks to create a dirt box area, mixed with sand, potting soil, and some ash from our fireplace. Need to get a bit more dry material to top it off, but I’m happy overall.

Put out a level of hemp flakes over the rest of the run, but also need to buy another bag, as the chickens definitely mixed it with the mulch there in their kicking.

Pulled out some wooden 12’ shelf brackets I had and got a 2x2 on discount at Home Depot because it was cut from the edge of a tree so it had a lot of natural rounding. I figure that fits with trying to emulate a branch. I may upgrade to a 2x4 if the chickens look uncomfortable, but for now the seem to like it. May play with the height as well, since I can just take the screws out at any time.

The tarp arrived, so it’s covered now.

Chickens:

The kids were allowed to choose from the stock they had at the store. They all were in the same run area so they were used to mixed breeds.

Ended up with a Black Star, a Barred Rock, and an Easter Egger. So far, the Black Star steals the show, its coloring is gorgeous and it will already just hop into your lap. The Barred is also fairly tame and you can catch it pretty easily, but the Easter Egger is a flighty son-of-a-$@&$ and won’t let you anywhere close to it. Pretty bird though.

Had to manually throw them in the coop the first night but they have gotten the idea pretty fast. The Egger is actually the best there, it loves being in the coop for whatever reason.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Updates friends!

Regarding the coop:

I used some bricks to create a dirt box area, mixed with sand, potting soil, and some ash from our fireplace. Need to get a bit more dry material to top it off, but I’m happy overall.

Put out a level of hemp flakes over the rest of the run, but also need to buy another bag, as the chickens definitely mixed it with the mulch there in their kicking.

Pulled out some wooden 12’ shelf brackets I had and got a 2x2 on discount at Home Depot because it was cut from the edge of a tree so it had a lot of natural rounding. I figure that fits with trying to emulate a branch. I may upgrade to a 2x4 if the chickens look uncomfortable, but for now the seem to like it. May play with the height as well, since I can just take the screws out at any time.

The tarp arrived, so it’s covered now.

Chickens:

The kids were allowed to choose from the stock they had at the store. They all were in the same run area so they were used to mixed breeds.

Ended up with a Black Star, a Barred Rock, and an Easter Egger. So far, the Black Star steals the show, its coloring is gorgeous and it will already just hop into your lap. The Barred is also fairly tame and you can catch it pretty easily, but the Easter Egger is a flighty son-of-a-$@&$ and won’t let you anywhere close to it. Pretty bird though.

Had to manually throw them in the coop the first night but they have gotten the idea pretty fast. The Egger is actually the best there, it loves being in the coop for whatever reason.



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Gorgeous girls!!

Be sure to show some love to the EE! They are VERY flighty, and I don’t imagine that mine will ever get anywhere close to being cuddly, but they can be great flock guardians for overhead predators.

They are excellent fliers and will happily fly up to the top of the 5’ (or higher) fence around your yard. But mine generally didn’t go out of the yard; they just checked things out. The older EE did hop down to the Great Outdoors twice, but very quickly (and with apparent relief) came back into familiar territory once I found her. You might plan to have to put avian netting or similar along any perimeter fencing to discourage these hop-up’s.

Diamond Lil (Lil) at the top; younger Willow on the right with her bestie Tessa in the center: