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.

 

[Bokinhen Palace]

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!

Thank you! Can't have roos, though it sounds like they would help with the hawks too. The run itself is predator-proof so I'm less worried about that, though I'm so sorry to hear about the bobcat and your sweet roo.

 

[NatJ]

1. Two of my hens (1 BR, 1 EE) are not going inside at night.... I'm not worried about rain or predators in the covered, protected run. Just cold.

Since you trust the run to keep out both rain and predators, I would not worry about chickens sleeping in it.

The chickens should not be bothered by the amount of cold you have, unless they are in a strong wind at the same time. If they are sheltered from wind, they should be fine.

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.

Unless there is a lot of wind in your run, I would not expect problems from draftiness if you remove the tray.

You probably do not want a big pile of droppings under the eglu, sending up bad smells all night to bother the chickens-- but if you rake in the droppings, or better yet rake them aside to a different part of the run, that would not become an issue.

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.

That does sound like a good sized run.

Stating the size can make a big difference to what advice people give, because otherwise they are guessing and making assumptions.

 

[Bokinhen Palace]

Since you trust the run to keep out both rain and predators, I would not worry about chickens sleeping in it.

The chickens should not be bothered by the amount of cold you have, unless they are in a strong wind at the same time. If they are sheltered from wind, they should be fine.


Unless there is a lot of wind in your run, I would not expect problems from draftiness if you remove the tray.

You probably do not want a big pile of droppings under the eglu, sending up bad smells all night to bother the chickens-- but if you rake in the droppings, or better yet rake them aside to a different part of the run, that would not become an issue.


That does sound like a good sized run.

Stating the size can make a big difference to what advice people give, because otherwise they are guessing and making assumptions.

This is all a big help, thank you!

 

[FrostRanger]

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.

Bedtime is a time where tensions run high so even if they are just sleeping and laying in the coop adequate room is very important. Also if they ever have to be cooped up for an extended period of time due to predators or severe weather they will definitely be feeling the squeeze so I would definitely still get a larger coop, a used shed is relatively inexpensive and easy to convert to a coop, it should give plenty of room for your current girls and future birds you add (you can't resist the call of chicken math forever lol)

 

[NatJ]

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.

Just to check: does this run have a roof?

It is sounding to me like your predator-proof "run" may actually be a perfectly good open air coop. If that is the case, I would leave the eglu door open all the time, and let the chickens choose where to sleep. Some of them may choose to continue sleeping in the eglu, or they may all choose to sleep out in the run and just use the eglu for laying eggs. Either way, as long as they are protected from predators and rain/snow and have some shelter from heavy wind, they should not have problems.