Carpet in nesting boxes?

[jkprager]

Anyone hear of using pieces of carpet at the bottom of nesting boxes instead of the usual wood chips, shreaded paper or straw? A friend uses then and expresses how nice it is. No mess on eggs. Easy to clean. Any comments?

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

I've heard of using it UNDER hay or shavings to keep eggs from breaking when the hens dig too deep

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

The only thing is, sometimes you have a broken egg in there. That might be hard to get off carpet unless you can wash it easily. Does he or she wash them?

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Both my hens and I are afraid of mites from now on! Our darling EE girl asked me to take out the newspaper and shavings, and she layed a lovely egg on the clean bare floor of her plastic (and dusted) tupperware. First, she dug to china on the bare plastic floor anyways, then her roosterly friend settled her down and they happily layed an egg together.

Maybe once they're used to the whole egglaying process, the nesting material may not be as important. Our girl will be three years old around christmas, she's been doing this a long time.

Of course, carpet squares would be easy to wash, dry and put back in. But the mites of this summer were SCARY bad. Ooooh. Bad. They were scared of the coop for a few days. Now she takes a good long look into her new nest box and sort of asks us to check it for her. She likes to see us wipe it and dust it.

So I'd be real careful with carpet squares if mites could get in..........

 

[ghillie]

I use carpet with straw on top. I sprinkle the carpet with DE to prevent any buggies. I take the carpet out and shake or wash if needed. When they get bad I just toss them and replace with new. Have not had any problems in over two years....

And

 

[lavacaw]

I have carpet in my nesting boxes under the hay. A little DE and mites are not a problem. It has stopped the broken eggs when all the hens decide they need to lay in the same box. I replace the old hay every couple of months because a lot of it gets scratched out of the nest when the hens rearrange it. Carpet almost always shows through the middle which says it needs to be there.

 

[AllCoop'dUp]

I put some brown/tan outdoor carpeting underneath my straw. I thought the outdoor carpeting would be easier to clean. The girls have scratched the heck out of it and in some cases clear out of the nest boxes. Probably because it doesn't weight as much as heavy carpeting. I thought about stapling or velcroing it down, but haven't gotten around to doing that.

 

[BWKatz]

My coop is only about 3'x4'and I use indoor outdoor carpet in it. I wash it at least once a wk in my washing machine and just shake it off every couple of days. Works for me & no complaints from chicks. Clean & no bugs.