The Cube arrived from Omlet last week. Very exciting. Having got permission from the council’s environmental health people to keep chickens in the garden, it was great to finally have their home arrive, despite the missing bolts and the fact they’d tried delivering it a day too soon.

It came in seven big, BIG boxes that took over the whole of the outhouse. The walk-in pantry, which would just about house a family car if you were a very careful driver, and the food prep room, which is the size of a small kitchen at the furthest end of the outhouse, were filled with boxes, walls, and the roosting bars and roofs of the coop. Some of it even spilled out into the corridor, which meant we had little choice but to squeeze past whenever we needed to collect any vegetables from the cupboards out there.

So it was good to finally unload it all into the garden yesterday, even if it did take up a good half of the lawn.

An Omlet Eglu Cube, in pieces

Putting it together was stupidly simple. You only need a screwdriver for the crosshead screws as the rest is put together by snapping in a series of green clips that secure the various parts of the run and the fox-proof skirt.

The instructions said it would take around two hours to complete, and that it would be good to get a friend to help which we assumed would cut that estimate. But it didn’t. Even with two of us at it, it took a good two and a half hours to get to the last instruction, at which point we found ourselves two bolts short. We found a couple of replacements in B&Q that we hope will fit the pre-drilled holes, but it rather took the shine off an otherwise excellent package.

Anyhow, the Cube is now complete, and all that’s left to do is phone one of the chicken suppliers listed in the table supplied with their future home to acquire our laying ladies. That won’t happen until we’ve been on holiday next month, so for the time being it’s sitting in the corner of the garden like a little Robin Reliant that’s lost one of its wheels.

Omlet Eglu Cube, complete

Technorati Tags:
keeping+chickens, omlet+eglu

Related posts:

1. Omlet Eglu Cube: review
2. How cosy is a chicken coop?
3. The chickens get a new home