Where to buy chicken coup ?

Liney_2

You can see a selection of coups/runs and they sell hens/feed and meds too at Woodside Animal Farm in Caddington

http://www.woodsidefarm.co.uk/woodside_shopping_village.htm

touch*my*food*feel*myfork

Liney wrote: »

You can see a selection of coups/runs and they sell hens/feed and meds too at Woodside Animal Farm in Caddington

http://www.woodsidefarm.co.uk/woodside_shopping_village.htm

Thanks i did think of woodside, but the last time i went (last year) the chicken houses were all empty and they had no coups, will check it out again

edit - Just rang them they have non at present hoping to have full stocks by easter weekend

dora37

MaximumImpact wrote: »

I have a home built run which is pictured below.....It cost me less to build than an Eglu and quite frankly is better to look at than some gopping piece of plastic.







?

Didn't mean to thank you! The point is it is down to personal taste - I would rather have my funky 'gopping piece of plastic' to look at out of my kitchen window,rather than your set up which wouldn't suit my garden or my taste at all.

HariboJunkie

Have to say that I am an aspiring chicken owner (once I get my allotment up and running I will change the veggie patch to a chicken run) and I don't like eglus but it is entirely down to personal choice and taste so my advice to the OP is to look up hen houses on google, yell.com in your area and go and have a look at what would suit you best.

elliejay_2

Thorne's in Letchworth. Best place in the area to buy your hens and all the stuff you need for them. They sell pretty hen houses and runs and have some fantastic rare breeds. You can always get great advice there too. They were really helpful when I had a bit of a red mite problem last summer. They also have days with free hen keeping talks, which are great for beginners!

One warning though, prepare to spend most of your time just watching them, and working out how to extend your run so you can get more!

touch*my*food*feel*myfork

elliejay wrote: »

Thorne's in Letchworth. Best place in the area to buy your hens and all the stuff you need for them. They sell pretty hen houses and runs and have some fantastic rare breeds. You can always get great advice there too. They were really helpful when I had a bit of a red mite problem last summer. They also have days with free hen keeping talks, which are great for beginners!

One warning though, prepare to spend most of your time just watching them, and working out how to extend your run so you can get more!

Thank you so much, know were i will be going tomorrow, not far from me at all, but never come up in any google searches i did, so much appreciated.

philgee

We're looking at getting a chicken coup, and have been thinking about something like this having decided that an eglu is too expensive and won't look right in our garden anyway.

Has anyone else bought one (seems to be lots for sale on ebay)? Are they any good?

Thanks

Lotus-eater

beaujolais-nouveau wrote: »

To adopt your eloquent turn of phrase - rubbish.

In ten years of chicken and duck keeping, I have had red mite two times, both of which I got rid of immediately using the method I described above. Whats your experience of red mite?


[quote=beaujolais-nouveau;19425911
Two answers to that. First, an egg that was laid 10 minutes ago and which has travelled all of 100 yards from nest box to your breakfast plate tastes amazing. You will never, never, never want to eat another old supermarket egg again (eggs in the supermarket can be up to two weeks old). Second, come 2012 when battery hen-keeping becomes illegal, eggs may suddenly become luxury items; and you should probably put a padlock on your chicken run now, to get used to locking them away from tea-leaves.[/quote]
I wrote that an eglu will never give you good money for eggs and you write a piece about how good fresh eggs are?
We know how good fresh eggs are sweetheart, that's why most people reading this will want or have chickens. Hardly answers my statement does it?

You have dedication to eglus that is to be commended, I hope they are paying you a retainer, because you deserve it.

I could answer your other points about eglus but tbh, its obvious you haven't had much but an eglu experience with chickens, didn't like me calling them a "middle class fad", which answers itself and are evangelical regarding eglus, only looking at their good side.

So, good day to you sir, I won't bother you again.

touch*my*food*feel*myfork

yes thats the sort of thing i am after too, just would like to go somewhere and actually SEE them before deciding.

Lotus-eater

touch*my*food*feel*myfork wrote: »

yes thats the sort of thing i am after too, just would like to go somewhere and actually SEE them before deciding.

I've just had a quick look at it and a measure to see how big it is.
Firstly it does seem at first glance to be very good value for money. However it does have its problems, which if I point out to you, you will get a better understanding of what is required for a coop.
It has no perch, most chickens will want a proper perch. And I don't think there is enough headroom to put one in.
For some reason it has two nest boxes, which is a bit odd considering the coop is quite small, I wouldn't want to put more that two full size hens, or 3 bantams in it.
The door doesn't fully open the whole side and is small, this will cause big problems when it comes to mucking out the coop. You could get round this by cutting open the entire side and hinging it.

Because of this I would take at a pinch of salt the description, we are experts at building animal housing etc.

edit, It also has what looks like two funny groves running across the middle of the floor, which will hold dirt and make it a pain to clean out.