The Omlet Eglu chicken coop: do first impressions count?
Just shy of a year ago three radiant red chooks entered our lives. They started their life with us in a small wooden coop, only to be quickly upgraded to a larger wooden coop. But with the wild year of weather we’ve had, our once majestic coop started looking worse for wear.
We started looking for a new chicken home and couldn’t go past the Eglu - made of sturdy recyclable plastic, hailed for it’s clever design and easy maintenance. So we took the plunge!
Long road to Gymea
The first obstacle was getting the thing to arrive. We slapped down our cash and were eager for our new chicken wonderland to arrive. We were given a delivery date about 2 weeks away. Then it was delayed, then delayed again and after a bunch of phone calls, it finally arrived after an extra month or so. Not a good start.
Bev, Martha and Willowdeen modelling the Eglu Go Up by Omlet.
The big build
As it wasn’t our first pet house building rodeo, we set aside a full weekend to allow room for error. The instructions said it would take a few hours but unsurprisingly it turned out to be a 9 to 5 job. Lucky we were prepared! The instructions were fairly straight forward but it was just very fiddly. There were literally hundreds of parts to assemble, but slowly but surely we got there.
Bindi helping us with the build.
Chicken ready
We took a step back, had a sip of our cold beers and admired our hard work - she was looking mint! Upon closer inspection we could appreciate the sturdiness and quality of the build (although the zip ties for some sections seemed a little dodge). All of the moving parts - doors etc - feel very reliable and are really functional. The feeders also far outshone anything of the sort we’ve had before.
And the best part - the wheels. The coop has in-built wheels that function like a wheelbarrow, so you can move the whole thing around to ensure the chickens don’t over-forage any one section of the yard. And, even though we bought the version with the longest run (4 metres), the wheels do the job - though you do need two people and bit of grunt!
Bev, Martha and Willowdeen exploring their new digs.
Did it make the chickens dance?
And the ultimate test - do the girls like it? Yes! They immediately took to their new home, bokking around like normal within seconds. They even laid eggs on their first night, which is pretty unusual, given how stressful moving normally is for chickens. Better yet, they’re laying and pooping in the right, designated spots - something they didn’t even do in their prior home.
So all in all, despite the initial mission to get things moving, the Eglu is a hit!
Martha and Bev during one of their garden destroying missions!
All photos are property of Gymea Homestead unless otherwise stated.
