Omlet chicken houses vs. Wooden Coops

[TheJeffriesCrew]

http://www.omlet.co.uk/

Hello there, me and my family are going to be a new chicken owners in a few months (or weeks not sure). My parents would like to buy Omlet chicken houses as they like the look of them, but im not sure id like to do a bit more research before choosing. Our garden is fully enclosed and is on a hill. The only thing we get locally is Badgers down by the cluster of trees down the road.

We would like to know which is better plastic chicken houses or wooden coops? (Redmite, waterproofing etc)


Thanks

P.S What substrate for in the run and in the nest box do you use? (we would like to keep our grass please)

 

[Judy]

Omlet chicken houses are a lot more expensive than building your own. Typically, BYCers would put about half as many chickens in one as they recommend. I understand they are waterproof but buildings can be, too. Your chickens are as likely to get lice or mites in plastic as they are in wood. They come from wild birds and are very common. And you are going to get bare spots in our grass unless the have a huge yard; even then, it will get bare around the coop. I have 9 birds in a 70' X 70' yard (about 25 meters X 25 meters.) It is bare about 10' out from the coop, and they keep most of the grass eaten all over their yard. They do leave a lot of weed plants, though. The substrate does things like absorb moisture from poop, control odor, and give them something they can make a nest in. It does not stop them from eating grass. You can use a lot of different materials, whatever is available. Pine, aspen or other wood chips (not cedar,) hay, straw, sand -- all sorts of stuff. I use hay in the nests, and pine chips in the coop.

 

[what did I do]

I know this is not chickens but it is what we see at our house. We have a wooden dog house and a plastic igloo dog house. My dogs have never liked the plastic dog house. I would not get the plastic coop just because it is plastic. The plastic does hold up well but it is plastic and plastic runs either hot or cold so not as comfortable. I do like the looks of the run that comes with the plastic coop.

Congratulations on new chickens.

 

[BottleHollow]

I'm in the country in Tennessee so we're supposed to use wood, lots of wire, and duct tape to keep everything together. My neighbors would turn me into a tourist location or run me out of town if I had a plastic coop. However, the Omlet coops do have many design features (like open/close front door, accessible coop boxes, roosting areas) that take some thought and design (many good examples here on BYC) to get into a wooden coop. The Omlet coops are definitely interesting. As mentioned above, though, it's definitely cheaper to build your own if you have the skills and you can always customize to your needs.

To keep your grass, you have to move the chicken house/coop around. The best way (not necessarily the easiest) is to use some type of chicken tractor that moves daily or weekly depending on the size of the tractor and the number of chickens. The Omlet site has mobile coops, the Eglu Cube is one. I'd probably only put 3-4 chickens in that coop size though.

We use pine chips in the nests and coop and, if my kids remember to, add diatomaceous earth (food grade) to deal with bugs.