What's the BEST Nest Box Material?

[TheBantyCoop]

Huge fan of dried grass. In my case that means hay. It's a natural nesting material that beds together, if soiled I flip it over. Actually can be flipped back and forth a few times and eggs stay clean. Unless you've a bird roosting in the nest very little soiling goes on so by the time it needs a flip the other side has dried and most flaked to bottom of nest box.

Basically I use what is cheap and on hand. Hay we use in winter for ice cover so there is always a open bale on hand and first cut hay aka mulch hay is cheap. Seconds as your seed and mulch if the birds tear up a spot in your yard too. I use pine shavings in the coop.

We use sweet Timothy hay, I buy it in the pet dept., cut & bagged for small animals. Fits perfect in the nesting boxes.

Thanks to the both of you! Hay was my go to nest box material, until I realized that I'm allergic to it....

 

[TheBantyCoop]

We use wood shavings purchased from the Co-op. It works great. I tried adding herbs once, lavender so it would smell nice. They would scratch all the wood shavings out of the boxes looking for the lavender. No longer put any herbs in the nest boxes but toss some in the coop once in a while.

Yeah, I didn't think about that. Haha, sounds like something my girls would do!

 

[TheBantyCoop]

Lisa from Fresh Eggs Daily knows a lot about using herbs for chickens. Here is a link: http://fresheggsdaily.com/2012/01/nesting-box-herbs-chicken-aromatherapy.html

Woah, looks cool! Thanks for this!!

 

[TheBantyCoop]

I use pine shavings and straw.

Thanks for the reply! Do you think that there would be a difference between aspen and pine shavings? All I know is that aspen is a hard wood and pine is a soft one, but I'm not even sure what that means....

 

[Hokum Coco]

I've had a lot of luck with aspen shavings in the past few months, but I would like to learn what other people use! I am particularly interested in using some herbs in my boxes, would this be beneficial to the birds?
Let me know

-El

Now if you are lazy and your goal is to get in and out of the hen house as quick as possible.
Plus if your chickens already are laying in your soon to be soiled nest boxes and if you get your feed bags in 50lb nylon mesh bags.
This is the method for you.

Nest boxes
In my nest boxes I fold a feed bag to fit (nest boxes are 1 ft³ and the bag runs up the sides and the back a few inches). When a bag gets soiled; fold a new one; pop out the soiled; pop in the new.

Feed bags are a nylon mesh bag.
Frozen poop just peels off in below freezing temperatures and just flakes off in summer when left out in the sun to bake and dry.

I have 65 trips around the sun it is the best method I have stumbled upon.

Make sure the twine is removed from the open end of the bag it can get tangled around your birds.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

My feed bags are paper. They only work well in nest box balled up to block them off to keep a young flock from learning to roost in them.

With hay fever I'd just use whatever you use in your coop for bedding. Be it dried leaves or pine shavings. Keep it simple.

 

[chicklover 1998]

Quote:
I don't know the difference in whether it makes a diff. but they both work good in the nest boxes.

 

[TheBantyCoop]

Now if you are lazy and your goal is to get in and out of the hen house as quick as possible.
Plus if your chickens already are laying in your soon to be soiled nest boxes and if you get your feed bags in 50lb nylon mesh bags.
This is the method for you.

Nest boxes
In my nest boxes I fold a feed bag to fit (nest boxes are 1 ft³ and the bag runs up the sides and the back a few inches). When a bag gets soiled; fold a new one; pop out the soiled; pop in the new.

Feed bags are a nylon mesh bag.
Frozen poop just peels off in below freezing temperatures and just flakes off in summer when left out in the sun to bake and dry.

I have 65 trips around the sun it is the best method I have stumbled upon.

Make sure the twine is removed from the open end of the bag it can get tangled around your birds.

Nope not lazy, but I'm defiantly pressed for time in the morning when I first check on the birds! It's an awesome looking method, not sure its right for me though! I have paper feed bags

 

[TheBantyCoop]

I don't know the difference in whether it makes a diff. but they both work good in the nest boxes.

Ok, thanks

 

[Ballerina Bird]

I like pine shavings. I cut rosemary and put it in the coop. It is supposed to repel mites. I don't know if that's totally true, but I don't have mite problems.