Topic: The Eglu - chickens

[Sarah V Bertram]

Read about this recently. Has anyone had any experience of this new fangled gadget for keeping a couple of hens in the back garden? Would love to keep hens but husband is resistant - will try to wear him down by Spring - and am complete novice hen-wise. Have asked one or two other contacts about hens, but they are pukka country people with wooden hen-house arrangements which sound fab, but I need to start small I think.

Any Eglu owners out there?

[Chantenay]

Please answer someone - I want to know too!!!!!

[adamhill100]

Looked really good until I saw the price at £365 with two hens..

[Jesse]

I saw the Eglu and was also dead keen on it until I saw the price!  :o

Husband is building my hen house and he too is reluctant about getting hens, worried they'll make a mess on the lawn as I plan to have them free range most of the time. Bet he'll change his mind once we start getting fresh eggs!

My opinion on the Eglu, it looks great, is fox proof and easily moveable. But at the price, unless you want to make a statement, I think you can do equally as good at a much lower cost elsewhere.

Have you looked at Forsham Cottage Arks, they have a great range to suit all sizes and budgets.

[Palustris]

Look at it in terms of return on your invesment. You would need to get a huge number of eggs before the cost of producing them was met. And that is buying true free range eggs from a reliable source. We started keeping hens over 30 years ago. the shed was made out of marine plywood, 2 by 2 timber battons, covered in roofing felt. The run was on a concrete base (all we had and easy to clean) and the whole thing was surrounded by half inch galvanised wire netting. It was fox proof, looked quite neat and cost comparatively little. It still took over a year of egg production before the cost of the materials and the hens was covered though.

[Sarah V Bertram]

Thanks for replies so far. Yes cost of eglu is huge, and we use a lot of eggs, so it would be galling to have to buy them if 2 hens did not produce sufficient. We easily get through a dozen a week - kids eat creme caramel, and a 4-egg cake see off 8 eggs before anything else is done! Will follow up the Forsham Cottage Ark connection - thanks. I need something ready-made as husband is not handy with wood. I'm not contemplating doing anything before Spring - gives time for husband to mellow - kids dead keen! It feels as if there is something missing  from the garden now that the organic veg plot is going well, and the chicken poo for the compost heap would be great too. I like the idea of the eglu, but it's a bit 'designer egg' for someone who is fiercely anti-label anything!

[Palustris]

Our new Henshed, room for 6 bantams or 4 biggies cost £140 delivered. A run on top of that would cost about £50. All it need consist off is some lengths of 38mm by 19mm roofing laths, half inch chicken wire, staples and a few nails. Even the least handy of persons could soon make one.
2 hens either Warrens or ISA Browns (dedicated laying machines) would give you about 400 eggs between them in a year. (Give or take a few depends on all sorts of things.)
Other breeds produce fewer eggs but are prettier and often live longer.

[Jesse]

Palustris have you ever kept Barnevelder or Maran hens? I have found someone local to me who can offer me some but I don't know much about them.

Sarah, my husband made our hen house from old bits of wood that he had as offcuts from work and as Palustris says a run is dead easy to make, I think I could make one quite easily (me, the person who finds using a hammer challenging!). Even the hen house didn't look that difficult to make, there are lots of free plans available on the internet with step by step instructions. Or if you have a local "handyman" you might even get a hen house made by him for less than the cost of buying a ready made one. At least that way you get the house made to your specifications.  :)

[Palustris]

Never actually kept either of those, though Marans would be first choice if we wanted hens not bantams. Try The Poultry Club for more information on breeds.

[Sarah V Bertram]

Thanks for your messages. I've done a bit more research, and have decided that we are about a 5-hen family, due to our egg consumption.  Forsham Cottage Arks are very good, but for a 2-hen set up come out (once everything has been calculated) not far off the costings for an eglu, and that is minus the hens. If you go for a 2-hen Forsham arrangement, there is also the 'treating' the wood every 6 months to be included in the labour side of things. So for busy townies the attraction of the eglu is clear!

It doesn't seem to cost much more than the eglu for a Forsham wooden job, for 5 hens, so is a possibility. I'll look into plans from the internet for homemade. I measured,  bought the wood, and repanelled the side of the garage a couple of years ago, so perhaps I could manage the hen house construction.  Sadly, the helpful man at old fashioned timber yard has retired - he made you feel as if you could make anything, and talked you through it! I did also see cheaper hen houses, made of shiplap timber, with roofing-felt roofs and in different colours ( not that that matters!) so will investigate further sources of these (flatpacks).

Yesterday when in a charity shop looking for Agatha Christie for son, my eye alighted on book on the shelf below  'Backyard Poultry Book' - Andrew Singer. A good 50p's-worth! Sellotaped inside was a  receipt from the 1980's from a local poultry farm, I'd forgotten it was actually a poultry farm as it is now also a fancy Farm shop and restaurant complex. Potential source of hens, and only 10 mins drive away! Things seem to be coming together slowly, but husband still resistant. (The keenness of the children will help to wear him down eventually I hope).

[motherhen]

I've had an eglu since early June.  If you want to read all about my experiences then log onto www.citychicken.co.uk
Before moving to a city centre I had 20 years experience of keeping chickens in a variety of hen houses, some home made.  The eglu gets 5* from me for an urban situation - highly recommend it.  As far as number of eggs per week is concerned my 2 modern hybrids, RIR x Plymouth Barred and RIR x Maran lay 11 or 12 eggs a week between them.
I've had the website going since I got Sybiil and Pollo but most of the questions I answer are through emails to me rather than on the forum.  Periodically I summarise most of the questions and put them on the FAQ section.  Hope this info will be of use to you all.
ps we are not allowed to keep hens on our allotment but if you read the diary you'll see they are regular and very popular visitors.

[gilgamesh]

Our scurvy crew lived in a standard 6 x 4 garden shed (20 sovs 2nd hand + a fiver to a man with a van for delivery), which sits on slabs (from local skips) in a run (with a door made from wood from scrap pallets from work) built out of defunct wire screening of the type yu see outside building sites. The current batch of chicks are in a rabbit hutch, and we've just spent the BH building them a field ark (actually renovating one garnered on "bulky items rubbish day") to go onto the lawn.

It need not cost a fortune, honest.