Two Eglu Cube Qs, One Mouse Q, all vaguely winter-related

[Bokinhen Palace]

Ok I'm a beginner, with my first flock of six ladies this year. 2 buffs, 2 barred rocks, 2 EEs. They'll be a year old in April. We have an eglu cube with an auto door inside a large super-safe enclosed run I built. I use the deep litter method and have about 10" of straw/leaves/etc in the run. I live in the high desert/mountains and it's typically 30-50s during the day, 20s-30s at night in the winter.

1. Two of my hens (1 BR, 1 EE) are not going inside at night. They have plenty of time after dark before the auto door closes. I can't tell if they don't want to, or if a pushy buff is refusing to admit them. I go out every evening, open the back, scoop up the hens and plop them inside. Same deal every night. Would they be ok if I didn't? Maybe they just prefer the less crowded roof over the being butt to face in the eglu's interior? I'm not worried about rain or predators in the covered, protected run. Just cold.

2. Since I do the deep litter method, the droppings tray in the eglu seems a little superfluous. How much additional "draftiness" would you expect if I removed it, and had the droppings drop directly into the deep litter? I'm tempted since a daily rake-it-in is more appealing than the every other day droppings tray cleaning.

3. The mice have found their way in to the run despite the 1/4" hardware cloth - so I bring in the food every evening, and take it back out again every morning. It makes it much more "farm-life" than "auto-pilot outdoor pets" which is usually fine, but I also work 24 hour shifts at a hospital and would prefer things ran without my many-times-a-day interventions a bit better on the days I'm working. I'm considering putting a larger hardware cloth skirt around the outside. Any other ideas?

Thanks!!!!

 

[FrostRanger]

Eglus are small coops so chances are it's due to feeling cramped and poor ventilation. Those temps aren't cold for chickens but with the very poor ventilation eglus tend to have, you're more likely to have issues with frostbite. General rule of thumb is you want 4sqft of coop space, 1ft of roost, 1-3sqft of ventilation and 10sqft of run space per bird at a bare minimum. Go under that and you're more likely to run into problems. You can buy rodentproof feeders (I think @Al Gerhart makes some) or just keep doing as you have been and removing food at night

 

[PeaShack]

We have 8 chickens and 4 Peachicks. We bring in all the food bowls at night too and no more mice/rats. The steel bowls are easy to clean and keep water fresh.

As for the two ladies staying out…I do not think this is a good idea. We have a separate bachelor flock and one night when we forgot to close up until 2 am, a bobcat had already taken one of my gentle, sweet roos. I was heartbroken.

I am not familiar with the size of your Eglu, but it could be a space issue. We have 2 roos with our hens and they guide them in the coop every evening.

Can’t speak about temps and drafts since I live in a warmer climate but would live to see what others say!

 

[Al Gerhart]

1. There is just not enough space in that coop if I have the dimensions right, 37" x 39", around 7 to 8 square feet of room. Using the specifications that FrostRanger gave, two chickens maxes out the square footage Then IF you have the 6' x 30" run that comes with the plastic coop, maybe 15 square feet, enough for 1.5 hens? You have a tenement going on there, welcome to slumlord status. LOL Not judging, people gotta start somewhere, but there simply isn't enough room for these hens to get along without a lot of friction and fighting. The two hens probably just believe it is safer outside than inside.

2. I'd leave the politician tray, it is keeping a good portion of the poop out of the coop at least. Again you have a coop designed for two hens.

3. Mice are less of a problem with chickens than rats as a lot of flocks will kill the mice where they wouldn't with large rats. That said, bringing the feed in at night does help some but it just concentrates the mice's feeding schedule during daylight hours. You don't have room for a treadle feeder so unless you get rid of 2/3rds of your flock you are going to need to find a bigger run and coop.

 

[Bokinhen Palace]

1. There is just not enough space in that coop if I have the dimensions right, 37" x 39", around 7 to 8 square feet of room. Using the specifications that FrostRanger gave, two chickens maxes out the square footage Then IF you have the 6' x 30" run that comes with the plastic coop, maybe 15 square feet, enough for 1.5 hens? You have a tenement going on there, welcome to slumlord status. LOL Not judging, people gotta start somewhere, but there simply isn't enough room for these hens to get along without a lot of friction and fighting. The two hens probably just believe it is safer outside than inside.

2. I'd leave the politician tray, it is keeping a good portion of the poop out of the coop at least. Again you have a coop designed for two hens.

3. Mice are less of a problem with chickens than rats as a lot of flocks will kill the mice where they wouldn't with large rats. That said, bringing the feed in at night does help some but it just concentrates the mice's feeding schedule during daylight hours. You don't have room for a treadle feeder so unless you get rid of 2/3rds of your flock you are going to need to find a bigger run and coop.

Thank you! You'll have to forgive me for trusting the Eglu site that this particular coop would support 6 chickens. When I check on them, they each have more than 1 foot of roost space in the evenings, as Eglu promised. As I mentioned in the original post, I did not use the run Eglu provides, I built one that is 130sqft, and about 8 feet tall with lots of vertical space too, more than double the recommendations. The eglu sits inside this run. The hens are only in the Eglu for sleeping and laying. We joke that you can easily see the run from space. So no, not a slumlord.