nesting boxes?

Some folks make hanging nest boxes that can be accessed from the outside.  Those are nice and almost required with a tiny coop.  I prefer a large coop or barn and like the boxes inside.  With our winters, every bit helps.  I simply make 16" or 18" cubes.  Nothing fancy, out of scrap OSB or plywood, whatever floats up on my beach.  I do use carpenter's glue on the joints and shoot with finish nailing gun.  Easy as pie.  

 

A very necessary step is to remember a 1x4 or piece of 4" base board scrap to attach across the lower front.  This helps greatly to keep the straw or chips inside the box.  

 

One last point.  A beginning pullet likes to lay on the ground or coop floor.  She doesn't start out thinking about laying way up high somewhere. This is my experience.  I place the nesting boxes quite low at first.  Raising them later on is fine, the birds usually get it, but not so much the first few weeks.  

My hubby built mine, exterior boxes. He used 1/4 inch ply wood, making a 12x14 inch box. Cut a hole in the wall of the coop 1/4 inch smaller than the size of the box and screw it on from the inside. He could probably best describe this building, however basically this is how he did it. Pretty cheap if you have some materials laying around. 

I made my 4 nest hanging box out of a 4x8 sheet of 7/16" OSB and a couple pieces of scrap 2x lumber that I had laying around. It has 4 nexts 12x12x16tall and I currently have it mounted 12" off the floor.

As long as the chickens can access the boxes and they are lower than the roost bar, than any height will work. I have a small coop and my boxes are only 6 inches off the floor. I only have 4 hens, however 1 box was not enough! The girls were all standing in line for hours! So now that I have 2 boxes for the 4 girls, there is no waiting. I use grass hay in my boxes. They enjoy making a nest out of the hay and my girls don't seem to kick it out like they did shavings. 

my free range love coolers ????just add hay lol  (with no lid ) old cooler

I didn't bother building any inside the garage I keep them in., They don't use the ones my grandfather made for the exterior.


I just pick out boxes from costco and set them on my already-existing shelves. Works great! Chickens love them.

Yes, we built our nesting boxes.

I got three regular old milk crates and zip-tied them together in a row. Then took a scrap piece of 1x3 lumber and screwed it to the bottom to somewhat keep the shavings inside. They were laying in the corners of the coop for a couple days but soon figured it out and now lay almost primarily in the middle milk crate. Yesterday it was almost comical..it was like a bunch of women who needed to pee standing in line for a restroom.

 

I'll snap a pic when I get home