Any creative nesting box ideas?

[rosyposyosy]

i have a straw bale right next to their coop which is inside their run. i use the straw for the bottom of the coop floor, the nesting boxes (which i made)my only laying hen figured out that you are supposed to lay in straw, so she has made a cute little nest in the corner of the bale, right next to the coop. lately shes been laying in the nesting boxes though, because i keep my chick in the run and have the older chickens free range during the day. but the straw bale really works!

 

[nccatnip]

I bought a couple of Sterlite storage containers at Walmart for around $3. I took a utility knove and then cut the lids in half and put it back on the top for privacy. Filled with hay. Cheap and cleanable.

 

[ml]

I have used alot of things for the ladies and each likes some thing different.


Book case, milk crates, big rubber bowels, Kitty litter boxes tops and bottoms used, card board boxes with holes cut into them and just toss when get messy. Some love hay piles to lay in and others sawdust. Just depends on the hen. They like to lay next to a roo it seems and my roos like to pick spots for them. Think have stopped the laying in the woods /leaves areas. It can be a easter egg hunt here some days.


Only flop was a basket they were so afraid of that.


ML

 

[bantymum]

I have used a cane laundry basket turned on it's side,
i now use old tv cabinets which have little doors underneath,
i take 1 door off so they can get in/out and the nest goes in behind the other door in the private section!
Im always spotting someones unwanted furniture on the naturestrip.
where i live we can throw anything decent out the front and someone will see it and rehouse it! otherwise we bring it back and dispose of it.
I get lots of materials for the "girls", fencing posts, paintings(prints) for the coop, boxes, by spotting them and putting them in my car.

 

[rooster-red]

Quote:
I bought 4 litter boxes at wallmart $1.67each, cobbled together a rack to hold them, filled them with pine shavings and placed a fake egg in each one.

In the 2 weeks following the installation of these boxes all the eggs I got came off the floor!

They didn't like them at all.

I'm in process of building a 3 box unit that has a door for acess from outside the coop. I'm using a dicarded rubber coverd counter top I found as the floor for the boxes, should be easy to clean.

 

[cheeptrick]

I have the plastic 'red' milk crates in my coop and the chickens have been getting in them but I am not pleased with the way they look. Plastic is just not my thing...and YES I never microwave anything in plastic! Here in NE there is a push for anything you eat to be packaged in organic paper products instead of plastic. I rather like that!
Here was what I was thinking of changing the milk crates to...
http://www.michaels.com/art/online/displayProductPage?productNum=cp0178

 

[usalbrechts]

I used an old kitchen cabinet. We hung it on the outside of the coop and cut a hole in it to the inside of the coop , adjusted the shelves and made 4 nests in it. Now we can get eggs from the outside of the coop by opening the cupboard doors (that is if we ever get any eggs laid!)

 

[Mac in Wisco]

 

[bantymum]

Nice pic Mac,
it looks very clean indeed, fit for a banty queen.

 

[dangerouschicken]

Those wooden crates posted would work well. I know people with orchards out here use old wooden fruit crates. Now if I could just get a hold of a couple of those......