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Why did we purchase and assemble an Eglu chicken coop when we could have made one ourselves from scratch, or purchased one locally?
Good question. Animal housing decisions should be logically made, but they so often get mired in emotional concerns, too! Our decision when picking a chicken coop was no different than many others. We purchased an Eglu Cube, the largest coop that the company Omlet offered. For us, the decision came down to a few factors.
I mucked out enough chicken coops growing up to understand that I had no desire to do that again. The portable nature of this coop allows us to push it around the yard, allowing the chickens to make fertilizer deposits and enjoy the grass more. Time will tell if the chickens raze our remaining grass to the ground, but, frankly, I do not care as long as I do not have to muck out another chicken coop.
I cringed at the thought of a plastic chicken coop, but have come to terms with the recyclability of all the components, and I love the ability to hose it down. Bugs are not going to be lurking in wood crevices, multiplying exponentially as bugs are prone to do.
It was already sized for an automated door. Again, I had no desire to relive childhood trauma of having to dash home after a church event to run from the car to the chicken coop door to close it before the foxes figured out that chicken nuggets were on the menu that evening. There are a lot of things that are wonderful from my childhood that I want to pass on to the Lovely Assistant. Coop trauma is not one of them. In addition, that automated door means that everyone has the opportunity to sleep in on Saturday morning should they desire, not schlepping outside in a bathrobe to make sure the chickies get to their breakfast before we do. I like modern technology just fine, and am happy to automate the coop door.
The chicken run was already attached to the coop, and seems to be decently robust. We have all the usual predators that would like to eat chickens (that would be everything). Of course, we reinforced it, hoping to avoid tragedy. Time will tell!
It came with all parts included and assembly instructions. I did not think that my marriage could sustain the pressure that a major construction project like this would put upon all family relationships. In addition, should the coop fail to resist predator pressure, recriminations from the fallout could be, shall we say, toxic. This way, if there is a disaster, we at least have an outside company to blame, not us.
More in future posts!