Farming is rarely described as chic, but if one aspect of it ever was of late, tending to a flock of backyard chickens might be it. I happen to be one of those cluckin’ trendsetters, as the tender to a diverse flock of five hens that live in the backyard of my suburban Phoenix-area home.

You’d be surprised how quickly those feathered females grow on you. When that happens, you begin to pay attention to new things, like pricing on freeze-dried mealworms and whether a coyote can scale a 6-foot fence. Safety, comfort, and integrity take priority when it comes to chicken coops, and the Eglu Pro—the newest chicken coop offered by UK-based pet product company Omlet—promised all of it.

Not only is the Eglu Pro designed to keep predators at bay, but it allows for ergonomic accessibility with a ladder that went through 146 prototypes, and—most intriguing—its plastic, smooth-surface construction was supposed to be easy to clean. It was also built to last a “long, long time,” according to Omlet.

With the help of my five hens, I tested the coop to find that Omlet wasn’t joking.

Assembly Is a Group Project

The Eglu Pro is Omlet’s extra-large chicken coop, designed for up to 10 large hens. Our flock, which consists of four large hens and one smaller one, recently endured the hottest summer on record in Phoenix, as the city saw 70 days of temperatures of at least 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Rain was all but nonexistent.

It’s fair to say we had hot chicks.

The coop they had always lived in was shingled on top and built with wood, had a metal droppings tray that would slide out, and featured a common area where they could both lounge and lay eggs. The only ventilation came by opening the back egg door and, since wood weathers, sometimes the coop’s exterior locks didn’t line up correctly or the droppings tray wouldn’t slide in easily.

Moira, Heihei, Mabel, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Dolly Parton were living in a bit of a shanty, if we’re being honest. They were able to test the Eglu Pro for about four weeks, beginning with the day after we assembled it.

When the coop’s 10 boxes arrived in two shipments on my doorstep, I was instantly smitten with the label design, which might sound insignificant. The cartoonish “Start with me, then find B” tag on the first box, coupled with the large labeling on every other box, fueled my optimism about assembly.

So I started on my own, giving a brief pause to the manual’s first page, which suggested a need for “stamina” and “patience” and a pizza party with friends to get this whole thing put together. Undaunted, I opened boxes A and B to learn, when my husband and two kids arrived, that I had used the wrong screws and would not need box B until later in the process.

The whole “Start with me, then find B” was just a cute rhyme, not actual instructions. The second step in assembly after box A was actually box F, which I would say is somewhat of a letdown since every box was labeled so boldly.

Despite that setback, and a couple parts that didn’t exactly match the part numbers in the guide, assembly really was pretty easy with four people, in part due to the company’s use of a kaizen foam-board-style box for hardware. Finding the correct pieces of hardware that had been mislabeled or subject to a typo in the book wasn’t a challenge, either. The fit was pretty obvious.

The instruction manual is easy to follow, even absent written words, and we had the entire thing assembled in about four hours. Our kit was missing one piece, though. My husband was able to whip something up to hold its spot and mimic its function in the meantime, but anyone who isn’t crafty in that way would likely be delayed a couple weeks while waiting on that missing piece.

Settling In

Chickens can be judgy. We once moved our coop from one side of the yard to the other, to allow for increased shade, and our boss chicken at the time couldn’t even deal with that type of upheaval without verbalizing her complaints at length and avoiding the coop for days.

That’s why I was delighted to see our flock settle right into the Eglu Pro, without any delay. They even laid three eggs the first day, which was another surprise. I thought the ladies would need a week, at least. Maybe it was the coop’s design.

The Eglu Pro’s nesting boxes, unlike our previous coop, offer privacy. One chicken can not see the other chicken, almost like a changing room, and according to experts, that’s what chickens prefer. In addition, the nesting boxes have an internal door that can be opened and closed like a garage door to separate the roosting (i.e., chicken hangout) space from the nesting (i.e., egg laying) area.

I haven’t seen that type of intentional separation in other coops, but it makes sense. It just keeps the nesting area tidier.

The detachable run that comes with the coop is available in 6-foot, 9-foot, and 12-foot lengths, and it doesn’t just hit the ground. A second panel lays flat on the ground, like a skirt, offering added security against critters that might dig to get into the coop, like raccoons. The biggest digging threat at our place is a pair of pet tortoises, and since our garden isn’t yet planted for the season, we didn’t immediately attach the run.

Two things we did attach were the coop’s hefty wheels and its ladder, which is much stronger than the flimsy wooden ladder we had in our previous coop. The tortoises made light work of our old ladder, knocking it around easily and breaking it away from the coop. The ladder on the Eglu Pro is, at least so far, tortoise-proof. Its ergonomic design is also patent pending. And with the run around it, it would be even more protected.

And the wheels, attached to a piece that acts as a lever and tilts the coop at an angle, allow for chicken tenders like me to ask my husband to easily reposition the henhouse at any time—which is likely welcome news for those who free-range their flock on grass and regularly need fresh pasture for the girls to scratch. The wheels make moving the coop easy in comparison to coops without wheels; I just couldn’t muscle it myself.

At the time we introduced our flock to the Eglu Pro, the Phoenix area was experiencing what seemed like unending heat, setting a new record of 117 degrees Fahrenheit in late September. In that kind of heat, any type of coop is going to be toasty, so we’re well-practiced at making sure the girls have water to splash in and shade to tuck under.

While the Eglu Pro coop incorporates twin-wall insulation, utilizes UV-stabilized polyethylene, and was designed to allow for cross-flow ventilation, we wanted to further mitigate heat-related discomfort. What I loved about the coop’s design is it gave us the option to remove a back panel from the roosting area to allow for additional airflow to keep the girls as cool as possible.

A hot breeze was better than no breeze, we figured.

In a more rural setting, with more active predators, this might be frowned upon. We do live in a state that is home to coyotes, after all. But our coop is positioned inside a fenced garden area, kept securely separated from our pack of three blue heelers and a single border collie. It’s clear, though, that the Eglu Pro was designed with protection in mind.

If you’re the type to close up your coop at night, a single swinging panel acts as a door at the top of the ladder. And the door to access the nesting box has a push-and-turn application to its knob, offering extra security. A fogged panel allows daylight to enter come morning, and an app-based, smart-door feature allows you to control security and set a wake-up call. These smart features are an upgrade to the basic set we received.

Taking It Easy

Backyard chickens, like any bird, make a mess. But we found that cleaning that mess is insanely easy with the Eglu Pro’s design. Sliding panels beneath the nesting boxes and the roost are super easy to remove, spray off, and slide right back in. It takes minutes.

Cleaning our previous coop, made with wood and metal, was a chore no one wanted to do. And using a hose was out of the question. Also, our current boss chicken likes to hang out on the coop’s roof at night, so we love that we’re able to easily spray away any evidence of her moonlit escapades.

While the Eglu Pro begins at $1,799, which is considerably more than we paid for our previous coop, it was clearly designed with longevity in mind. And I’ve seen coops go for much more.

Our previous coop barely made it four years, and probably should have been retired sooner. The Eglu Pro comes with a 10-year warranty and replaceable parts and is made with materials like powder-coated steel and UV-stabilized polyethylene, which won’t rust or rot—which is more than we can say for our old wooden, house-style coop that we had repaired in infinitely creative ways over the years.

Plus, our girls love it. They’re pumping out more eggs in their private nesting boxes than we know what to do with, which to us, is a sign of their approval.