The Best Material for Lining a Nest Box

[AngieChick]

I use hay over some felt pieces. The girls were kicking out all the hay/shavings and laying on bare wood, cracking the egg. I waited all that time for those eggs and there was no way they were going to be allowed to get cracked every day. The hay seems to stay in the nest very well. The astroturf is a good idea, I think I'll look into using those instead of the felt.

 

[onthespot]

i second the bermuda hay. I have marans and it does the least scratching on the color of the wet eggs. The hens do scratch it around and eat some of it too, but it is really cheap and goes a long way. I use scrap that falls from bales I feed the horses, stuff that I otherwise would toss so it is sort of like free for me, even though I buy it.

 

[The Chicken Lady]

I have always used straw, but the other materials suggested in this thread have intrigued me.

 

[jzallen01]

why are cedar shavings dangerous?

 

[smith2]

I use wheat straw. I have tried carpeting (they tried to eat it), astroturf (they ate that), shredded paper (scratched it totally out or would have nothing to do with it). I'll bet the Spanish Moss is awesome! Some people use rice hulls or flax hulls. Never tried either, but both sound really neat.

 

[VetsJetsnGuns]

I had to can my experiment. The bale of staw was $5 and it was huge; in order to store as much as possible I stuffed my 4 nest boxes with it. I'm not complaining; 1st day with the new straw, 1st day ever of NO floor eggs, and all eggs were VERY clean. I think I'm gonna stick with straw.

 

[Buster52]

Quote:
Why would eating hay cause crop problems? I ask because I have recently started giving them alfalfa hay and they love to eat it. In fact, they will eat it before they will eat their feed. It doesn't seem to be doing them any harm so far.

It also doesn't make sense it would hurt them. Hay is just greens baled up, isn't it?

 

[mylilchix]

I put old carpet pieces in mine. The girls love it!!! We had a problem where they'd kick all of the bedding out of the boxes, but now no more broken eggs from the egg hitting the wood of the nest box!

Sonja

 

[onthespot]

Quote:
I have heard that the shavings can stick to their inverted cloacal parts during egg laying and get pulled inside the hen when she returns to normal and cause horrendous infections and death. Just one person I know has had this happen.

oops, edit here... The above statement is for shavings in general. Cedar shavings have oils and naturally occuring chemicals that are toxic to many kinds of animals, not just chickens.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Why would eating hay cause crop problems? I ask because I have recently started giving them alfalfa hay and they love to eat it. In fact, they will eat it before they will eat their feed. It doesn't seem to be doing them any harm so far.

It also doesn't make sense it would hurt them. Hay is just greens baled up, isn't it?

That's what my thinking on it is too. However I have read of people that see a hen eat a piece of hay and then when the hen gets an impacted crop, blame it on the hay.