Question for "Eglu People"

[meadrian]

I wouldn't mind seepage. I had a "puddle" that sloshed around. Hey! I'm originally from Oregon. Great place. And, yep, it sure rains. As far as the sun, mine has a roof over it. I wonder if the plastic would break down prematurely. Good question.

 

[meadrian]

Woodland Woman - I did contact them in England where they originate. They were very kind, but weren't about to replace it since it was over the 30 days. I really do believe mine was a fluke. I've only read about one or two others. But still....

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I'm really sorry to hear that you had such a bad experience with their product. I understand that they're only legally required to do something the first 30 days, but when you have an individual model that's so defective, sold for so much money, it would have been nice if they could have made more of an effort at customer service. I'm not sure what to think about them, now. Gee, are people only supposed to buy their coops within 30 days of the rainy season?

It's good that you could built an enclosure to protect it from rain, but the whole point of spending so much money on their coops, for the size, is that they're marketing them to people with no building skills or desire to build. If you have to build an enclosure to prevent it from leaking, you could have just built a coop.

 

[meadrian]

Exactly. They were very nice on the phone, but still nothing was going to be done. Funny, I thought the same thing at the time, am I supposed to buy this only when it's raining? I almost bought the Cube, but didn't because it was new and there were issues with leaking in the UK. Thought it was a safe bet to go with the classic. Live and learn....

On a side note, they closed the US forum. They asked many of us if we were OK with that. The regulars said not really. We liked the small size of the forum, different products are available in the UK vs. US, language is sometimes different and we offered to help moderate, or do whatever to help. The folks on the UK site are very welcoming, I don't want to give the impression they weren't. They're very helpful, too. It was the company. I'd say at least they asked, but overnight, without notice, they took down the site. Luckily a couple of us were registered on the UK forum and could connect. We set up our own system and don't use the UK forum. It was really unnecessary to do it that way, and quite rude, we thought. It was literally overnight without notice. At least 24 hour notice would've been good so we could connect with each other. There are several others I wish we were in contact with, but no way to contact them now. My feathers still get ruffled over that one when I think about it, do I try not to.

 

[Ogress]

I have 2 Eglu cubes, one Catawba tractor coop and 1 10X 12 walk-in and a DH that will probably walk out on me if he saw the credit card bill! The bill is mostly from the walk-in which went way over budget. I figure I gave him the opportunity to build it, and he never started, still I did not expect it to cost so much.

Anyways, I LOVE my cubes! (Love the walk-in too). My first cube has a large attached run, and it claims to be good for 10 standard sized chickens. I would never put that many in it. when my hens got to be near POL, and if it was not too windy, I started letting them free range during the day, and in the evenings, I would often find all the birds huddled together in the Eglu - the 6 that I had in there plus the 4 from the Catawba. So yes it hold 10. (I'd move the 4 back to their wood home). The wood doors on the Catawba expand and contract too much with the weather, so they tend to jam shut of fall open. Not thrilled with it. Also, the access doot is cumbersone. The Eglu is far better thought out.

I live on a very windy ridge above town and we average over 80 inches of rain per year. The only times I have had water inside the coop is when we did not have the roof panel properly latched in place. Sometimes it is difficult to line up the roof panel, so I bent the flanges so they fit together better. When it is very windy and in heavy rains, I put a clear tarp over the run, and sometimes over the coop as well. The tarp is weighted down with a 3X1 that runs the lenth of the tarp on 2 sides, still I find I need to bungee it. Then there is the cold weather and the rains we get here. I found that by late October the grass was no longer recovering and it is still too cold and soggy to grow back, so I parked the run on 6" of bark for the winter. Kneeling in the mud, snow, chicken poop to change the feeders and waterer in the winter are a pain, so we built the walk-in.

Then the snow caved the roof of my dog-kennel, so I had a solid roof with clear panels built over it and purchased a second Eglu cube (stand alone) for it. It currently houses by bantam cochins (only 2 at the moment with 4 in a brooder). I figured with the fuzzy feet, they needed something dry.

The cube may be pricey, but upkeep is cheap and easy! I line the poop trays with paper grocery bags or newspaper. I fill the nest boxes with either shredded junk-mail or wood shavings, and they seldom need changing. When the weather is nice, I hose the whole thing out, and on sunnydays, I pull off the roof to sanitize the insides with UV rays. I can't wait until the weather warms enough and my yard dries up so I can use it as a tractor again. Right now it is an isolation pen for new birds.

 

[egglicious]

Well folks, I bought the cube! Now i'm just waiting for it. It will come in july.

Thank you to everyone who posted here! Lots of good insight. I guess i'm an "eglu person" now!

 

[Ogress]

Congratulations! You won't regret it.

They usually sell out before the boat even arrives from England. I got my first one in 2 weeks only because someone did not pay. My second one took a lot longer, I think I ordered in September and got it in March. The boat was already on its way when I called, they had a few unsold on it, but all had runs, so I had to wait for the next boat. I was told that when I called to order.

Not sure where you live, but when it gets below freezing here, I put a heated cat pad under the wood shavings in the nest box. Seems to work well to keep the hens warm.

 

[egglicious]

Thanks! The website said I would get it in july. I hope that is correct because I already have chickens on the way!!