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

[TerryH]

My girls have wooden nest boxes in their coop that they love but on this day, they found an overturned bucket in the garage to lay in. Silly hens

lol...that's a classic. All the trouble we go to to make things nice for them and then this.

 

[Bernadine503]

Here are my stacking bins before adding pine shavings all over, and letting the girls move in. I need to find a better way to secure them to the back wall though!

 

[cherylperk]

I just finished this today. Have yet to put it up but my new coop isn't quite done yet.
This is made entirely from left over pieces of wood/ plywood/ T1-11 that I used to build the coop.

 

[happychick24]

Anyone see anything wrong with these?! I have 6 hens... 4 were laying daily when I brought them home, two are pullets

and now on day 4 with no eggs yet

... Darn chickens

 

[aart]

Anyone see anything wrong with these?! I have 6 hens... 4 were laying daily when I brought them home, two are pullets and now on day 4 with no eggs yet

... Darn chickens

The 4 upper nests could use perches about 8" out in front, so they can land on perches first then go inside nests.
They might not be able to fly into those openings without dinging their wings.
But that might not be why you are not getting eggs.....
if you just brought them home-new place is stressful and take time to settle in,
or they are older and molting, or....

 

[featherweightmn]

Our first Pallet project! We always heard pallets make great coop related projects!
So we started small and tried nest boxes

 

[rosemarythyme]

Now that I know for sure that my nest box works, I can post it here.





My nest box is a modified old dog house with a roof that lifts off. Not pretty, but functional. We now have 2 layers and they took to the dog house without any major issue.

I cut a hole through the back of the coop extension and made a tunnel connecting to the dog house using wood recycled from the old nest box (that came with the coop, we had to remove it to expand the roost bar). I cut a few windows in the dog house since it was so dark and musty inside, the windows are covered with hardware cloth and reinforced with more scrap wood. Later screwed in a lip of scrap wood and it's been good to go since.

Bedding is pine shavings over a folded feed bag (thanks to member Hokum Coco for the idea, I would've never thought of it and after putting it in I stopped getting cracked eggs since the chickens can't kick the bag out!)

 

[Beekissed]

Our first Pallet project! We always heard pallets make great coop related projects!
So we started small and tried nest boxes

I love that!!! Very pretty!

For all you folks using wood shavings in your nest boxes, if you can find some hay you'll have immensely less problems with materials being kicked out, shoved aside so the eggs are being laid on the bare wood, eggs getting frozen when they aren't gathered until evening time, etc. Hay can be stuffed in easily and cleaned out just as easily, the hens find it pleasing to form into a nest shape, and it has amazing cushion for the eggs.

 

[maihem]

Just set these up in my new coop I hope my girls like it. I have 2 stacked right now with a cardboard (temporary) divide, so each bucket has two nests. Any suggestions for a permanent divide? http://www.homedepot.com/p/HUSKY-St...ERCH=REC-_-rv_nav_plp_rr-_-NA-_-203850470-_-N

I looked at those but had limited space from my original bucket design, aart told me might be too small...buckets worked up until we got Welsummers and Black Copper Marans that are huge compared to our other girls. Was able to replace buckets with uline bins https://m.uline.com/h5/r/www.uline....-x-7-1-2-Gray?model=S-19507GR&RootChecked=yes Used corrugated sign board (political signs gathered after the election) to isolate one bin leaving 2 bins with no separation. There have been 0 eggs left in the individual bin.

 

[twinsmom6]

Here are my stacking bins before adding pine shavings all over, and letting the girls move in. I need to find a better way to secure them to the back wall though!

I find they like a roof and seem to prefer to be out of view of us or other ladies.. so maybe a cover.. layer of wood. I like the clean-ability of these