Omlet eglu and red mite

[hedgehogsdad]

Hi

Our hens live in a wooden coop which we converted from a children's play house. They seem happy and healthy but I find it really difficult to keep red mite away. I'm tempted to buy an omlett eglu, which people have told me are much easier to clean, and are much less hospitable to the dreaded mite.

Has anyone got any experience which supports the latter part, and any other thoughts on these houses more generally?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Marigold]

I started with an Omlet Eglu but soon moved on to a Green Frog Medium Chicken Lodge, as the eglu is really not big enough for more than two medium hens, although i did try to keep three in it and it was rather a squash for them. Having used both, I much prefer the Frog. For the same or less money, you get a coop which comfortably houses up to 6 hens, with two nestboxes instead of only one. It has proper perches, easily removeable - I found the sort of grid system that the chickens have to stand on in an Eglu was hard to keep clean and the chickens couldn't wrap their claws round it like they could on a proper perch. The eglu perch grid was hollow underneath, making it hard to get into the mouldings to scrub, whereas the Frog perches are just solid, rounded plastic bars, easy to scrub, and they don't really get dirty because the droppings fall out of the way rather than all over the perches, like they do in the Eglu. The Frog is up on legs, which is much easier on the back when you're cleaning it out, and also the hens can get underneath in the shade and dig around. In effect, it gives you a bit more floor space in the run. The build quality is excellent and the ventilation is far superior to the Eglu, with adjustable vents both sides, whereas the Eglu just has one or two holes in the sides, not sufficient in my opinion. Also on the Frog the door is adjustable - I never shut it on mine, but in the depths of winter I sometimes close it a bit, and you can get an automatic closer device for it if you wish. You can take the Frog to pieces much more easily - its basically a flat pack, whereas the Eglu is a moulded shape, not so good if you want to move it.
Quit e few of us on here have Green Frogs, and we are all very happy with the build quality and usefulness of these coops. I've never had redmite, and I think plastic coops are less prone to them and obviously easier to treat if you do get it. Plastic isn't magic, but is much easier to clean. If you already have redmite on your premises, you would need to be very careful about how you dispose of the old coop before installing the new, in case even one or two of the little beggars came across to the new coop and started it off.
There are some other excellent plastic coops on the market - many people like the Brinsea ones, also Solway's quite popular. I would suggest you try to see any you are interested in, and talk to people as you are doing on here, as there's nothing like hearing about other people's experiences before you buy. If you say whereabouts you live, one of our members might be able to show you their coop, I would certainly be very happy to do this.

 

[hedgehogsdad]

Thanks ever so much for your quick and hugely comprehensive response. I was looking at the Omlet Cube, which I understand would comfortably house our five hens? I'd never heard of the Frog but will do some research now I have. The key bit was whether plastic coops help keep red mite out, and now it sounds like they do I feel a fire coming on - once the new coop is in place!!!

If anyone else has comments on other plastic coops I'd love to hear them.

Many thanks

 

[Marigold]

My friend has a Cube, and I look aft his hens when he's away, so I have seen inside it. Same sort of perch grid as in the small Eglu, and again, poor ventilation in my opinion. Omlet were among the first to make plastic coops and their designs were groundbreaking at the time, but I do feel they're overpriced compared with some of the simpler, more recent alternatives. A Cube would comfortably hold 5+, but so would a Green Frog Medium, so compare the prices.

 

[hedgehogsdad]

The Frogs are loads less expensive and sound much better value. Challenge is whether I need a medium or large? We've 5 hens today but we have had 8 and so I'm thinking large. Who else makes plastic coops?

 

[Marigold]

A Large frog would certainly be comfortable for as many or more than an Omlet Cube. Unlike many manufacturers, you can rely on Green Frog for giving sensible estimates of how many birds their coops will hold, eg for the Medium they say up to 6 medium- sized such as hybrid layers, or 4 very large such as Orpingtons. I'm not sure how many their largest coop would hold, but if you might go above that in the future, perhaps might be more convenient to get a second coop at that point and divide the run and flock in whatever way seemed appropriate.

 

[hedgehogsdad]

That's really helpful and with them being SO much cheaper I'm thinking that I'll get my order in.

The secondary reason for looking at the Omlet Cube was the purpose built run. Our hens free range, but one problem with that is that either a fox, or more probably a badger knocks their feeder over during the night. They don't eat all of the food, so the girls can still eat the next morning, but they make a mess and waste food. I was thinking that the run would at least solve that problem. Ive built a "house" for the feeder which allows me to lock it up at night but as we use an automatic door opener, unless we get up really early the hens make a lot of noise until they get their food. I'm thinking that perhaps I could make a small enclosure around a Frog coop to keep our visitors off their food, and hope that the hens work out that they can fly over it?

Any other ideas?

 

[Marigold]

I think Green Frog does make an optional attached run, but maybe not for the type of coop on legs. The Omlet run my friend has is very secure and also the mechanism that lifts the run plus coop to move it to fresh grass is very effective, even a weakling like me can manage it. My coop is in a secure walk-in run which is large enough for all of them during the day, when I am not able to let them out to the garden, especially in winter, so I never shut the pophole and they can get up when they like. Also, with a netting roof, no wild birds get in, and I attribute my continued freedom from redmite largely to this, as well as nothing contaminating food or water of course.
Small attached runs are useful in the morning, as you say, but of course they're not the answer for longer periods when the hens need more space. My friends run, which has the run extension but still is very small, gets terribly messy within a day or so, even though his birds are allowed out freely during the day. Also, its totally impossible to catch a hen from the run as the door is too small to crawl inside, and if you could, you would get your trousers plastered in muck off the floor. New birds get badly bullied when they're all shut up in there for some reason.

 

[Margaid]

You seem to have some DIY skills so why not make a shelter - four legs and a roof in which you can hang the feeder? It keeps it off the ground so they don't scratch stuff into it and although the badger or whatever could knock it, it would only swing so maybe less food would fall out.