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

[funny farmer]

Since I'm a huge fan of upcycling, I loved the idea of using the 5 gallon buckets for nesting boxes. I could hardly wait to get started. Well......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!

 

[Rochafam4]

they look great!! I still have a few months before my lil ladies start laying but when I do I will post my pics too. I ended up with old kitty litter buckets because they are square and seemed a little roomier, plus the lids are already set up to cover 1/3 of the bucket. LOVE seeing everyone's ideas!!

 

[funny farmer]

I may still try the kitty litter box idea if this doesn't work out. That was actually my first choice, but I went with the bucket idea because the buckets were free and I had some scrap 2 x 4's.

 

[Rochafam4]

Yeah nothing better than recycling I actually put an ad on craigslist asking if anyone had empty kitty litter buckets w/ lids and actually got a response from a lady and she have me 8. I don't have cats so if it wasn't for her I would have never had any.

 

[islandgirl82]

I've repurposed an old wine display rack for nesting boxes and my girls love them.

 

[73luke]

I built this nest box out of pallet wood and filled it with shavings but the eggs were still getting laid in random places in the coop so I attached some material for curtains and hey presto...eggs in the nest!!

 

[Rochafam4]

so much creativity on here!!

 

[vehve]

I've repurposed an old wine display rack for nesting boxes and my girls love them.

I was looking at the pictures, thinking "beautiful", but now reading the caption I see it was the nest's previous use that mainly appealed to me

 

[Hanetreetjie]

We designed these nest boxes around the black plastic crates we found at the plastics store. The crates are removable for cleaning. Came out quite nice, we think

 

[Rochafam4]

Did you build the shelving yourself? Looks great!!