Show us your nest boxes! Ingenous design post it here!

TattooedKeeper3 said:

TexasLisa and adgcountrygirl,
I live in southeast Texas. I just moved 30 miles southwest to Plantersville. It is great to come across others who live in Texas. I am new to the site.
I use my Tidy Cats cat litter buckets to hold feed. I have never thought about using them as a nesting box. Do you think that would be to warm for the new chicks and ducks come August when they will probably lay?

My new coops are I guess considered open air as well. I used some of the trays we had around that are used to hold soda bottles for their nesting boxes. They have never liked being in an actual box like thing. They surprised me in the new coop however.

Here is one of the outside cats, Coon, laying in what was meant to be a nesting box.



And under that shelf as shown here are where they decided to lay. All four hens use the same spot. Bobbie was the one in there when I took this photo.


My coop now that the winter/bad weather tarps were taken off last week. From this view, the left side has the baby chicks and ducklings; the right side is for the Ladies (my 4 adult hens).

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Hi TatooedKeeper and WELCOME! I had to look you up on the map (still learning Texas). You are 1 1/2 hours north of me. It is a shame you don't like cats.......

I like your coop, nice and airy!

Lisa

TexasLisa said:

Hi TatooedKeeper and WELCOME! I had to look you up on the map (still learning Texas). You are 1 1/2 hours north of me. It is a shame you don't like cats.......

I like your coop, nice and airy!

Lisa

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Thank you, I had some help. Between all of us putting it up one afternoon, I think it only took us about 3-4 hours total. I hope the coop design works well this summer. I will also be looking into two fans for each coop. I have two small ones but I want to find something a bit bigger but not huge to hang in each corner. Oh yea even the outside cats are spoiled. Now I get to come up with nesting boxes for the ducks if even one of them turns out to be female. I have never had to have a nesting box for a duck. I am impatiently waiting now to find out the gender of my ducks and 3 baby chicks. I used to travel a lot through Rosenberg on my way to Victoria and the surrounding area.

I used some old wooden nail kegs and they enjoy they are large enough so when they all want to lay at once 2 and 3 will get in the same barrel. since these pictures I have added 4 kegs and they still only use 2, weird but they're happy/ The coop has since been wrapped in both 1" chicken wire over the chainlink and the tarp is very very heavy and the roof has been raftered to support our light snow fall. When the gate is closed there is no access to the inside of the run and when the coop door is down they're snug as a bug in a rug.

I love that idea!!!! I will have to be on the look out for some of those for my younger bunch. Thank you.

I knew I kept all of those buckets for a reason. My flock is to young to use them yet, but if they like them I have several more packed away in the garage that I can add to the coop. THANKS BYC for the great reuse/recycle idea.

hennchick said:

I knew I kept all of those buckets for a reason. My flock is to young to use them yet, but if they like them I have several more packed away in the garage that I can add to the coop. THANKS BYC for the great reuse/recycle idea.

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Only pullets will hatch from the pink and cockerels from the blue!

Anyways, and good morning!

To Texas Lisa: I don't have a cat but a friend of mine does. He used the litter containers to store feed. About 50% of his flock stopped laying and several died for no known reason. I don't know the litter brand. You may want to check with a vet before using the containers for any length of time. JUST AS A PRECAUTION. Because my friend's chickens may have died from some other reason.

Just wondering, as we are building our coop right now, but I was thinking of making the boxes, but to put the covered cat litter pans in them, so they can be cleaned out well and to prevent mites. Has anyone done these? The tops are rounded, so would be pretty tough to roost on top. Like this: https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...a=X&ei=CiR9UcKwG7Kr4AOKzYCACQ&ved=0CHMQ8wIwAg

these ones are what I am thinking of using. Putting this inside the boxes, so we can build a perch in front of it. What do you think?

Actually in rethinking this, cannot use covered ones, as I am doing the external nest boxes and coming in from the top to get the eggs, so will just do the regular pans in the box.

pappy1264 said:

these ones are what I am thinking of using. Putting this inside the boxes, so we can build a perch in front of it. What do you think?

Actually in rethinking this, cannot use covered ones, as I am doing the external nest boxes and coming in from the top to get the eggs, so will just do the regular pans in the box.

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Thanks for posting this, as these will be my new nesting boxes. I have to walk in to get eggs anyway, plus I want my hens to go broody and these will be perfect.