white food grade 5 gallon buckets for nesting boxes?

[ChickenBoy99]

Do you think it is a good idea to take these white food grade 5 gallon buckets and nail them up on the wall tiped on the long end. I would put one board underneath it to hold it up then hail the back of it too the wall through the bucket. The reason for the food grade buckets is they are cheap and scence they are food grade nothing sticks to them for easy cleaning. Do you think it a good idea to make them into nesting boxes?

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[FireTigeris]

I might be confused... but won't that be too tall?

Nest boxes can be 12*12 square and only 3-6 inches high.

Mine are just framed out, as long as roost are higher they don't 'foul' the nest.

 

[Den in Penn]

I saw a picture of what you describing on here. So yes they can be used. Don't know how well they worked. Put a board across the front so the nesting material and eggs don't slide out.

 

[FireTigeris]

Oh sideways

https://www.backyardchickens.com/gallery/image/view/id/4986889/album/5914541



here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/459379/buckets-as-nest-boxes

-Search terms: bucket nest boxes

 

[rwwjsw]

5 Gallon buckets are all I have ever used and I’ve had my hens in them for 5 years I have J Giants and they use it fine. I use dry wall mud buckets though and you can get them for free if you know any drywall finishers. The mud is something that when it gets wet you can wash it out with a little soaking and soapy water (after soaking over night I washed out 10 buckets in less than 1 hour) and when you get finished that bucket looks as if it was a new bucket (avoid paint buckets). I built a rack and screwed the buckets to it I laid them down but with a slight angle so the eggs will want to roll to the bottom of the bucket then I took a 1x4 board and ran it across the opening of the bucket so ½ the with of the board covered the opening the other ½ I used for attachment to the runner to keep eggs from falling out. Good and bad to them good if the hen while roosting relieves herself it will hang around in the front of the bucket away from the eggs thanks to the length of the bucket, bad if the buckets are in the pin with the birds they want to roost on top of it and that will lead to a big mess so I had to come back and lay a piece of scrap plywood over it on a steep angle so they could not roost there. They can also be cut shorter if you do not have enough room for full size buckets you can do it easy with a hand wood cutting saw. I have 6 nesting boxes took me about 2 hours of work to make and clean the boxes used scrap lumber I had to build the frame and a $2 bottle of dish washing soap Best thing is if they get dirty broken egg chicken crap a damp cloth cleans them up like new. Cheep and easy to clean Hope this helps

 

[kellypepperk]

Since this picture was taken we have put up a slanted board on top of the buckets and are about to put a small board across the front of the buckets. The buckets are about 36" off the floor and we now have perches up - the most popular perch being about 6' off the floor. I say YEAH for buckets!! But, I also have to say that we found our very first eggs yesterday, and they were hidden. But, our girls have not used the buckets yet - though we have seen some feathers in the buckets and a few of the fake eggs have been found on the floor, so I'm pretty sure they're at least checking them out.

 

[Big A Chickens]

They work very well as long as you have a board in front of them to keep the hens from pushing the nesting material and eggs out.

 

[funny farmer]

I made mine today. I was so excited till one of my hens got in. I thought the buckets looked a little small, but after the project was completed it was confirmed. I measured them and it turns out they are 4 gallon buckets.....GRRRRRRR!!!!!! I have some 5 gallon buckets on the way and I'll switch them out next week. In the meantime, we will see if they use them or not. I left one of their old nest boxes in the coop, just in case.

All in all it was a fairly easy project. I cleaned out the food grade buckets, cut the lids into thirds, and screwed the bottoms of the buckets onto a 2 x 4 for stability. It only shows 3 here, but its actually a row of 4. Thanks for all the great tips everyone!

 

[MamaChicken4]

Those look great! I was thinking about doing this as well. I'm still debating building wooden boxes and putting plastic dollar store bins in them. I'm not sure which I prefer yet.

 

[MeepBeep]

Personally I would not spend the extra money on food rated buckets (they generally cost about $1 or $2 more new) as generally the only difference is that the pigment used on the 'non-food' buckets isn't FDA certified for food contact. And the FDA is worried about the pigment leaching out of the bucket in storage... But the chance of anything actually leaching in this application that is very short term is slim to none, unlike say storing food in the sealed bucket for a year or two on the shelf...