Eglu care - much nicer on sunny days :)

An atrocious rainy and cold Saturday meant that all Eglu cleaning duties were put off, replaced with snuggling on the sofa and playing the Wii. But today is a gorgeous sunny day, ripe for gardening and chicken-care.

Cleaning the Eglu can be a bit long-winded when you first start but once you get into the swing of things it can take no time at all. Generally I empty the poop tray every 3 days - simply a case of quickly brushing the roosting bars then taking the tray out, emptying into the compost bin, lining with old newspaper and popping it back it. Once a week I move the Eglu to a fresh patch of grass, replace nesting box straw and dust the roosting bars with a mite powder.

Every 3 or 4 weeks I give the Eglu itself a good clean - take apart, hose it down, spray with pet-friendly disinfectant spray and give it a wipe down. Roosting bars are scrubbed in warm soapy water (Ecover is great for this) and left to dry. When clean and reassembled, I powder the bars and pop some bokashi bran on the poop tray (absorbs odour, makes poo more compost-friendly). Then rub some citronella oil over the Eglu to deter insects and sprinkle some in the poop tray.

And that's it! Sounds a lot of effort but no more than other pets would require, rabbits or guinea pigs for example. Plus the chickens give back with yummy scrummy eggs as a thank you for taking such good care of them :)