Omlet Eglu Chicken Coop Review (2021)

The Omlet Eglu has a metal skirt to protect your chickens, it’s easy to move around a backyard, and you use a quick twist a handle to lock your chickens up at night. It’s plastic and will last a long time. I also like that there is a separate nesting area with easy access to freshly laid eggs. The best part of the Omlet Eglu coop is that you empty a tray to clean the coop in less than 5 minutes.

That is the quick and fast review. Now let’s get into more detail on why I choose the Omlet Eglu chicken coop for my flock and if it’s possibly the right coop for you.

I have a flock of backyard chickens and currently have a wooden coop that I built myself. The coop is still holding up, however I went out and starting building using whatever materials I had on hand.

With no plans it has some design flaws. Mostly, I didn’t build my “run” long enough and the pen area is tiny.

I hate leaving the chickens in there all day. As a result, I have let all of my flocks free-range in the backyard as well, which is why I have lost MANY chickens.

In order to keep my chickens safe, but still able to have access to fresh bugs and grass I looked into chickens tractors. Chicken tractors allow you to move the coop around the yard while they are enclosed in a run attached to the coop.

My first thought was to just build my own.

After checking out some online plans I decided that it was outside my current carpentry abilities.

Although I could have tried I didn’t want to waste time, money, or the frustration of trying to build it from scratch by myself.

Plus I live in the suburbs and I don’t want an ugly coop like one built with hoops.

This led me to my local feed & seed. They build really awesome tractor coops, but the runs are still smaller than I like, and they cost about $1000.

I really wanted to support my local business. However, I’ve had a wooden coop rot on me before and couldn’t see spending that kind of money on something that I didn’t love. Also, I was worried it wouldn’t last more than a few seasons.

The Omlet Eglu costs the same but I know it’s going to last.

What I like About the Omlet Eglu Chicken Coop

It’s a plastic chicken coop

Now I’m not a huge fan of how a plastic chicken coop looks. I wish they made it just a bit cuter, but looks came in far second to the advantages that the plastic construction brings.

Since it’s plastic and sturdy plastic at that (mine made it through quite the adventure to get here if the look of the box is anything to go by). There was nary a scratch on this bad boy.

I know that it will be durable and my investment won’t rot away and disintegrate. This is much better than a previous wooden coop I purchased from a Tractor supply store that fell apart. 

The Omlet Eglu Coop Is Easy To Clean

The second thing about plastic chicken coop is that it’s easy to clean. The design of the Eglu helps make this easy as well. It has a drawer that slides out that catches that chicken manure making adding it to the compost pile a much easier task.

Part of my coop design flaw was no sliding tray, as well as no easy way to clean out the coop.

The Omlet also has a roosting tray, meaning the chickens aren’t sitting in their own poop as it falls into the collection tray below! This keeps the chickens clean, happy, and healthy.

The roosting tray is also plastic and removable so that you can hose it down and scrub it if you need to.

You can see the roosting tray on the right and the separate nesting box on the left in the picture below.

The Coop Door Is Easy To Open and Close

My door is yet another design flaw of my coop, my door flips up, so on a windy day the wind may actually close the coop. This keeps the girls out if they want to go in and lay eggs.

The Omlet Eglu coop door opens sideways. You can open it from the top of the coop so you don’t have to go in the coop to open the door.

You also have to lift the knob up and twist to open the door keeping it secure from predators that don’t have hands.

A Separate Nesting Box Area

Speaking of laying, the Omlet Eglu has an interior door that you can close at night to keep the ladies out of the nesting box. That will keep the bedding in that area cleaner, meaning the eggs that you are collecting are cleaner as well.

Clean eggs don’t need to be washed or refrigerated. A clean nesting area keeps the laying girls happy and producing eggs.

Easy To Collect Eggs Each Day

On my current coop, it’s rather difficult to lift the door and fumble around for the eggs. I’ve dropped more than one egg during collection time.

The Omlet coop has a side door that opens for easy egg collection.

This keeps you from entering the run or dropping eggs as you lift the door with one hand and fumble to collect the rest.

Attached Run Area For The Coop

The attached run keeps the flock safe while still allowing them the freedom to “roam”. I purchased an extended run since my chickens are used to being free-range.

The heavy-duty steel run has a green coating on it to keep it from corroding and an anti-tunnel skirt keeps predators out.

The Coop Has Wheels Making It Easy To Move

This frame is lightweight making it easy to build and easy to move.

Some other tractor kits that I have seen end up not being built to actually move. Generally they are too heavy (those solid wood tractors built to last tend to need two people to move).

My friend ordered one and it lasted about a month before it became too much work it move it. It eventually became a sitting coop.

Since this coop is, say it again, PLASTIC, it means that it is easy enough to move with just one person.

The wheels on this coop drop down so that you aren’t dragging the coop around and it moves much easier. It also won’t leave rivets in your grass. 

Anti-tunnel metal skirt to protect against predators

The anti-tunnel skirt works to keep predators out and with the additional purchase of screw downs, keeps your flock safe even on uneven ground.

My backyard has lots of dips and drops and can be quite uneven in places. This was another issue that I wasn’t sure how to tackle when trying to come up with everything I wanted on my own chicken tractor.

Once again Omlet already had a solution in the anti-tunnel skirt.

Additional Features included I like

The Eglu also comes with a few added features, I Like! To help give the chickens more area to roam in the rain it has a rain cover that clips onto the run. This gives your flock a place to stay dry but still be on the outside.

They also include food and water containers.

I do wish they had automatic feeders and waters. But they do have an automatic door that you can purchase, which is something I’d like to get in the future.

Coop Delivery, Instructions, and Assembly

One note for the actual build so far, IKEA has better-written instructions. At one point I had to undo the handles on the wheels that two pages previously had told me to put together.

They do have a video on YouTube. However, it doesn’t match the order of the written instructions/tiny pictures that you have to try to decipher. 

The customer service well makes up for any bad directions.

I built my daughter’s entire nursery from IKEA furniture, so I can muddle through this build. It still beats cutting and designing this coop myself.

My order was shipped out much sooner than I expected, and I was thrilled that it arrived so quickly! Mostly, of course, this is 2020 and the busiest Christmas shipping season ever, so one box made quite the journey to get here.

Once the delivery date had been moved several times and was at the time no longer scheduled for delivery, I emailed Omlet. Within hours Lucy had replied, of course by then they had rescheduled the box for delivery.

Excited that I finally had my battered box, I set about building my new coop. Unfortunately, during shipping, the box had been ripped and the box of hardware was missing from the box.

I called customer service, and even though they are in the UK and don’t carry only the hardware boxes in the US.

They sent out an entire new Box B just, so I could have the tiny box of hardware sooner. (The UK also went into level 4 lockdown that day).

This box arrived within days and even though it was ripped worse than the first box it had the parts I was missing. 

Conclusion

Okay, that pretty much sums up the Eglu for now. I just completed the process of putting my plastic chicken coop together. I’ll have more for you later once my chickens have been using the Omlet for a few weeks.

In case your wondering I have 7 bantam chickens living in the coop currently.

After my experience with this company, I am happy to say I will continue to give them my business in the future.

Check back for updates and build videos.