Omlet Eglu Coop - How to Keep it Warm in Winter??

[ChicoryBlue]

Even if the coop is intended for sleeping and laying, those are times when squabbles are likely to break out. My flock is fairly peaceful and even they will squabble over a favorite roosting spot, you really want to have as much room as possible when that happens. Not to mention that you never know when an emergency will happen and you need to keep your birds cooped up (extreme weather being one such reason)

Good points. The setup does accommodate these situations. As @Skacha23 says, the roost is a flat platform. So movement and roosting can be in multiple 2D directions.
There are personal preference spots but when squabbles happen - with integration, or with the death of a hen causing a shake-up, I’ve seen this - the three coop walls (or four if you count the nest box partial wall) create safe zones.

The hen getting pecked or harassed will turn away in place, or move away, which may cause other hens to also move, or the hen will slide between unmoving hens to another spot. Even with six large fowl there’s some room between hens if everyone were evenly spaced.

Eventually friends end up head to head facing each other, or next to each other. Lower and higher hens who don’t want to be next to each other end up next to each other but tail to head or perpendicular. Out of sight, out of mind, I think.

The third possibility I’ve seen is that the corner between walls is helpful for the very lowest hen. First, she can move along the wall to another spot and only has to be concerned with the inner-facing side as she goes along. She can decide to roost facing into a corner. One wall she is usually close enough to so no one can come up to her from that side. She can also turn her head in towards that wall if someone really tries to climb her shoulder or wedge in on the other side to get at her.

These things I’ve watched on camera. It has been like the Sargasso Sea. Or a big dance floor, sometimes everyone would move in a big circle getting settled. With the death of the lead hen Peanut, the second in command Hazel used to station herself inside near the pop door and peck everyone coming in as they went by. Especially the new young ones, everyone had to run the gauntlet. Even with everyone in, she used to stab at them when they got close. Once it got dark, until she decided to sleep, she would blindly stab the air near where she sensed somebody.

The one thing where there’s been a problem is when someone decides to actually block the pop door, sit right there on the threshold and prevent others from coming in. Isn’t that something most every coop faces? I’ve made a sort of porch platform in front of the door, so there is room to move and sort things out after climbing the ladder.

Weather - the run from the Omlet coop (and under it too) in my setup is tarped for winter, and in the summer there’s wind and rain blocks set up on the bad weather / sideways rain / windy side. It leads to the two large covered pens set up perpendicular to each other, again with the weather sides protected.

That said, there are definitely birds that can handle close quarters than others

There’s something to be said for choosing breeds that tend to get along, unless you can have separate setups and pens.

 

[Bawkbok]

The one thing where there’s been a problem is when someone decides to actually block the pop door, sit right there on the threshold and prevent others from coming in. Isn’t that something most every coop faces? I’ve made a sort of porch platform in front of the door, so there is room to move and sort things out after climbing the ladder.

We've experienced this also. The top hen used to go in first and block the door, pecking everyone who wanted to enter. We also built a veranda and attached the ladder to it. Somehow, they've worked things out and now the ones at the bottom of the pecking order roost early to get their choice spots farthest from the door in the corner and the lead hen stays out as late as possible almost to dark, definitely sundown. Meanwhile, the younger ones sometimes sound like they are having a wrestling match, you might here an occasional yelp but then silence. When I peek in to check on everyone after they're all in - which I do every night, I find them standing huddled together leaving half the space empty. They all look at me like "what?" Silly birds.

 

[ChaosMom]

We've experienced this also. The top hen used to go in first and block the door, pecking everyone who wanted to enter. We also built a veranda and attached the ladder to it. Somehow, they've worked things out and now the ones at the bottom of the pecking order roost early to get their choice spots farthest from the door in the corner and the lead hen stays out as late as possible almost to dark, definitely sundown. Meanwhile, the younger ones sometimes sound like they are having a wrestling match, you might here an occasional yelp but then silence. When I peek in to check on everyone after they're all in - which I do every night, I find them standing huddled together leaving half the space empty. They all look at me like "what?" Silly birds.

We have a large Nestera sitting on a platform 2 1/2’ above ground level; ~2’ above litter level. There are two roosts, each 3’ long.

The three pullets, 14+ weeks old, roost together on less than half of one roost (1 1/2’).

 

[Dan Hall]

They fit.
I was in Montana when I first got this coop, down to -20°F. I'm a bit south in Wyoming now so in theory it's warmer. I'm looking at our weather though and it says we got down to -25 this winter, though I don't think I saw that at my house, I might be in a bit of a microclimate.

Dis you have frozen eggs or frostbite at -20F
thx

 

[Skacha23]

My roost is even as well (there is a bottom rung, but it's only to help give my slightly less agile buff Orpington Juniper a leg up) and there is still minor squabbling. That said, there are definitely birds that can handle close quarters than others

That's just it, you have individual rungs. To a chicken there is one that is better and a way to face that is better. Omlets have kind of a grid floor that allows hens to face multiple ways. As described below they have to settle but they aren't stuck with just one orientation. I just introduced a new bird that I adopted. Once the birds above her in the pecking order get their "remember I'm better than you" goodnight peck in she figures out how to orient herself for the night so they stop pecking her.

Dis you have frozen eggs or frostbite at -20F
thx

Yeah, unless you are there to catch the egg as it's laid you'll have frozen eggs when it's that cold. The coop is blocking the wind so the chicken's feathers can keep them warm.
I did have frostbite the first winter. Tips of combs mostly. One girl I think didn't tuck her head in and lost most of her comb. After that they all learned to tuck their heads deep under a wing and we haven't had frostbite again.

 

[Bawkbok]

Omlets have kind of a grid floor that allows hens to face multiple ways. As described below they have to settle but they aren't stuck with just one orientation.

Yes - I find one facing the corner away from the others, the lead hen always stands in the middle facing the door and the others huddle together in the other corner. Funny that the two huddlers would do that since they are higher and lower in the pecking order and one spends all her time running from the other one during the day.