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.
