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A Chicken Coop for all Occasions
For the past few years, my hens have been housed in a stationary run; once home to my aviary birds, it became a make-shift coop when I was desperate to start keeping chooks. Knowing I was soon moving and that I wanted to return to the flight back to my finches, I started looking for a decent yet affordable coop. If you’re anything like me, you see an Eglu, breathe a sigh of pleasure and then gasp at the awful price! Most of the elaborate coops on the market are extremely expensive for what they are and, I suppose, are aimed at those with a large disposable income. Even at a few of the pet centres I visited, coops were over £100; a price that, when renovating a whole house, I really couldn’t allow myself to spend. Luckily, in swooped Cocoon…and the rest is history.
I’m seriously happy with my new coop; not just because of the price – a very pleasurable £70-odd*. Cocoon’s coops come as a flatpack, but whereas IKEA’s famed furniture sets demand specialist tools, you’ll need a screwdriver and that’s about it for this coop. It was very straight-forward to put together and, even better, it only took ONE day to be delivered – that’s what I call service. The other thing to point out was that by delivering a flatpack, products are open to a degree of scrutiny because you see every part. Cocoon’s coop was very made, with beautiful wood and perfect mesh – I’m impressed. But, down to the coop itself….
It’s a neat little design which allows ultimate ease for cleaning and access. The shelter has a ramp down to the run, with a door that can be closed from the outside – a very important feature for a moveable run that doesn’t have a base mesh guard. IF a fox manages to get underneath, the door’s closed at least. There’s also a door to the run itself so if, like me, you intend to let your flock roam around a little, letting them in and out is easy.
The nest boxes are easily accessible
Meanwhile, a metal tray collects the chicken poop from inside, which you can then throw on your compost heap, and a separate flap-up lid offers a simple approach to the two nest boxes. As an aside – having grown up on and off a farm with straw EVERYWHERE, I find it extremely painful to have to actually buy bags of the stuff as nesting material – especially knowing there’s a whole barn of it up in Suffolk. I’ve found a great alternative material is sheep’s wool. I have several friends who receive meat deliveries (think Riverfood/Abel and Cole but protein) and it’s wrapped in plastic-covered wool for insulation. It’s ideal for chicken nest boxes, soft to the touch, doesn’t get pulled out and shed everywhere, and it’s FREE. It’s also recycling, to a degree, so see if you can hold of some – it really works.
A metal tray makes cleaning extremely easy
Overall, I’m extremely happy with the new coop and my lone surviving hen is too. It’s light enough for me to drag the entire frame to a new patch of grass very easily, yet sturdy so that in the gales we had a few weeks ago, I didn’t have any concerns about it being blown over. There’s also a main lid so that should you need to access the main nesting area for a thorough clean, you can get right in there. Charlotte seems very at home, and in a few weeks time I’m rescuing some ex-battery hens so they can call it their own too. My only warning is that I bought the ‘5-6 hen’ coop and I would never house that many in it. I’ll have four at a push, and that’s with letting them out when I’m around. Just bear in mind they’re smaller than you think when you’re shopping, and buy a model that’s for more hens than you intend to keep.
I’d definitely recommend though – it’s made chicken-keeping far easier and A LOT more pleasurable.
*at the time of purchase – back in January 2015.
One Response to A Chicken Coop for all Occasions
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