The Eglu

You make a good point and if someone wants to build a chicken coop it can be done much less expensive that the eglu. But I don't think you considered the number of years the eglu will be useful. Most chicken operations don't keep their hens nearly as long as a normal family might because there is some "pet" aspect if one only has 4 chickens. But I think you should recalculate based on a much longer life and see what the results might be. You could factor in reproduction of your own chickens and possible sale of chicks or adult birds. You noticed the chickens which can be purchased with an eglu are $10 per piece (I wonder if those aren't adult birds as chicks would require totally different quarters for nearly the first two months). Anyway, that was a very enjoyable blog.

Thank you for the comment, Debora! I agree with you that the long-term use of the eglu would be more cost effective than the one year example I portayed in my blog. The Eglu is also an option for a person or family who wants to raise chickens, yet does not want to invest time in building a coop. It's an example classic time vs. money. Ultimately, raising chickens in town is a hobby, whether the house is home built or if it is an eglu, you are investing time and money which will be more than buying store eggs. It depends on what you want to get out of it. I still think the price of the Eglu is astronomic and a bit out of hand. :-)

The Eglu is pricey, but so are a lot of the wooden ones on the market. I checked about the chickens and arrive 17 weeks old. Since I have 2 chicks in my garage which I paid $2 a piece for. I can tell you, I would happily spend money for "point of lay" chickens. Chicks are eating machines. I have spent more money in one month than I would have buying point of lay birds. Plus they are a huge hassle. The organic feed is way over price though. I get ours locally for $22. I did end up getting the Eglu and I love it, but not the price. My husband had put together a wooden coop and it was a pain to clean and maintain. Except for the outrageous price, I love the Eglu. The Eglu will pay for itself in 1.5 years since we have 5 hens ( they have a large run and free range in our yard). The eglu is built to last at least 10 years but more likely at least 15 years. !5 years of not scraping poop out of a coop and the price starts to looks a heck of a lot more reasonable.

I've been searching around for different coops and the Eglu just comes out ahead if your an urban dweller. I'm only going to point out two main pluses over the build your own types, ease of use and keeping the dang thing clean, you can't beat it on these points. When your trying to squeeze in several tasks into your daily life these two points make a big difference. BUT, your right, the Eglu is a lot of money ($495), and if that wasn't enough it's the shipping that is stopping me, $170. I just can't see paying that much for shipping. My in-laws live in Iowa and I'm thinking of having them pick me up one on there way out here in spring. I'm really hoping for someone to make a knock-off.

I think the Eglu is a brilliant concept, but agree with you that it is extremely pricey. To me, who is about to start the whole egg thing at our house, I considered the Eglu mainly due to convenience. Not just the convenience of getting a pre-built system, but also the convenience for when we travel. After all, I cannot easily bring a wooden hutch to someone's house when we go out of town for weeks at a time. And, with regards to this being a status symbol, I'd have to say that most people don't know or care about that. Especially the kind of people who would even consider raising hens at home. But the real point needs to be their audacity: charging that much for the eglu, feed, hens, and shipping is amazing. To me, they've come up with a brilliant solution, and are price gouging.

I like the looks and convenience of the Eglu, too pricy for me tho. I bought four Red Ranger Laying hens from an internet company and paid ten dollars a head for them, BUTTTTTTTTTTTTT, getting them shipped to Fort Worth, Texas cost twenty dollars a head. I live in town so only have a sixty foot by ninety foot back yard. I have a one horse stall back in the corner. Instead of buying the Eglu, I turned the stall into a hen house. It is a little harder to clean, but most of the poo ends up on the roost which is an eighteen inch wide by six foot long, board. With a two inch high roost on top. They roost near the door so I just hit the poo with a water nozzle and out the door it goes for grass fertilizer. I have a seven year old grand son and seven year old great granddaughter that truly love the hens. Once a week, when they visit me, they carry the hens around like they were kittens. The hens follow them around, waiting to be picked up and petted. It pleases me to no end, to see them have fun, I get three and sometimes four eggs a day and give plenty away to family and neighbors. The hens are not noisy and have the range of the back yard. I have only known of one attack by a hawk, but the other birds sounded an alarm and my hens instantaniously squated, ducked their head and made a run for the underside of the pontoon boat. Two crows ran the hawk away, first it headed for a telephone tower about a hundred yards behind my house, then they dive bombed it until it flew away. I haven't seen another one since. I didn't know that crows would run a hawk away, but it happened. When I told my son about it he remarked that the "crows" were probably big blackbirds. Not so. I know a Crow from any other black bird. I have my chicken house rigged up with an automatic door. It opens at six in the morning and closes at seven at night. (winter hours). I have a deer feeder modified to feed them two times a day. At sunup and one hour before dark. I also have an automatic waterer. The door and feeder are run by battery and solar panels. If I want to go spend a week at the lake, and that happens a lot, all I have to do when I get home is collect eggs and hose out the poo. Anyhow, that's my story and I'm sticking to it...Z.T.

i was just curious about the shipping. we did order the cute but expensive eglu last spring and then cancelled the order after i was told that it would be, after paying $170 shipping, NOT to my home but to the nearest greyhound bus station! This happened to be 2 hours away! The eglu would not fit in our car either. we have since bought an amish made coop for $800. it fits in better with our home and surroundings but is not mobile. we are still trying to figure out how to make this very heavy coop mobile so the hens can range in a new area every week and not kill all the grass.

Thanx for your blogs. I love the design of the Eglu, but I am a little hesistant about the price, although the wood ones are pretty expensive too. It would probably be worth it for me because I want to move it around and I am a clean freak, so I want to make sure their house is clean too. I don't know where the nearest bus station is, does it have to be Greyhound? Come to think of it, I can't recall the last time I saw a Grayhound bus... I have never owned chickens, this would be a first and I figure I could at least sell it without much of a loss if it dosen't work out for me.

i have to say having had hens for 3 years now i would consider the eglu too restrictive for the hens. they love to get out and range and the eglu affords little outside room. our girls make a run for it when we open the coop door in the am. the other question i had was having a coop on the ground. they love to roost--on a real tree or bush if outside, or on a nice pole or ladder type roost in the house. i don't like that the eglu is on the ground which seems less natural for them. not to mention cold in the snow. i do admit the ease of cleaning seems great, but at what cost? it's not hard to keep our coop clean. we have room to range them around in two connected 4ft high exercise pens. they do great in that area (we have 5 bantams) and then the next day we move it a bit so they have fresh range. when we ordered the eglu and found out that it would be sent to the greyhound station (and they didn't say it had to be greyhound but that doesn't mean much) for the $170 shipping fee and we'd be expected to carry it home we knew it wouldn't work out. we like the amish coop. it's very well made and is easy to clean. it has three nest boxes that the hens will actually come inside the coop to lay their eggs in. i just worry about people who don't really have the room for hens and get them bc of the eglu and then they become prisioners in the thing. like rabbit in a hutch...that's my two cents. seems like you could definitely sell the eglu w/o a problem if you do invest in one.

These comments and the blog have been really helpful for me, as I'm trying to decide whether or not to have chickens and what they're housing should be. (I particularly appreciate the comments from "mb" who wrote that the eglu is too small to give the chickens the room they need, plus her comment about rabbits in hutches, which I agree with.) One piece of information I'm having trouble finding: I live in northern Minnesota and I'm wondering how you would keep hens warm in the winter.

i would definitely worry about the hens in an eglu in the winter if it's on the ground. we ended up putting our hens in the mudroom in a box the nights when it was below zero here--northern virginia. you'd be amazed how they huddle together to keep warm. i went and checked them one night when they were out in the coop and it was bitter outside.i took my hand out of my glove (it felt immediately freezing)and i put it in the nest box where the 7 hens (bantams) huddled up and it was really warm...having said that they do have to work hard to keep their very warm bodies warm in the winter. feathers are a great insulator (ie down jackets). you could also look for breeds that can take the cold a bit better. murray mcmurray should be helful for that. we supplemented suet too. also you can use a heat light (or even a 100watt bulb) to add heat if you have an electric supply close. i just don't like messing with night and day cycles. some people keep the light on all the time to keep them laying in winter...ours do anyway. we have had good luck with this amish built coop and yard (x pen) that we move around for them. it does well insulating from cold. if you are handy you could easily build an insulated coop or rig solar electricity to run a bulb. also we put in a fair bit of bedding to help too. even when the water bottle was frozen in the morning the hens were ok. it's great that you are considering the well being of the hens before your purchase. they really are happiest out and about but safety is a concern. we keep our trap bated for possum/raccoon/feral cats just in case there is something roaming around. we catch and release the critters and the cats go to the shelter. there is a product called night guard--that's a solar powered flashing red light-- that keeps predators away. hope this helps you out. we love our hens...two just visited my daughters preschool today and were fed grapes, pancake and endive by the 4 year olds!