So hubby wants to design some new nesting boxes for our hens, and I'm looking for some ideas.
The first big problem is that the girls are cracking their eggs. We are selling the eggs locally for eating, so every egg cracked is coming out of our pocket. We are losing almost a dozen eggs a week leaving only four or 5 dozen to sell. The girls scratch out the pine shavings. We have about a 2 inch lip on the front of the boxes, and anything they scratch out just goes in the bottom for our deep litter method in the coop, but it is a pain to constantly be buying extra shavings just to have them throw it all out in a day or two, and start cracking eggs again. They get plenty of old shells to eat, and I don't think the problem is with the shells since, sometimes when I go to cook with the eggs I've got to wack it three times to get them to crack open. Hubby thought about using egg crate padding (like on a bed) in the bottom of the box, but I think that's a terrible idea. They will scratch it up, work it loose eat it, and it will be impossible to clean. Additionally a box where the eggs roll back and out isn't really an option in our current set up.
Second problem this needs to be a fairly cheap fix. Hubby has been out of work for a while, and we've been saving up egg money to expand and fix the run. We've had a few preditor problems since moving, and we are going to mostly be spending money to shore up a few problems with the run. For example, at the last place, we didn't have any trouble with animals digging in, just hawks and a few racoons. Now we have coyottes digging under and pulling birds out that are very close to the fense. (This is happening during the day, early morning late evening, not at night when they are in the coop.)
Anyone have any ideas, they want to share.
The first big problem is that the girls are cracking their eggs. We are selling the eggs locally for eating, so every egg cracked is coming out of our pocket. We are losing almost a dozen eggs a week leaving only four or 5 dozen to sell. The girls scratch out the pine shavings. We have about a 2 inch lip on the front of the boxes, and anything they scratch out just goes in the bottom for our deep litter method in the coop, but it is a pain to constantly be buying extra shavings just to have them throw it all out in a day or two, and start cracking eggs again. They get plenty of old shells to eat, and I don't think the problem is with the shells since, sometimes when I go to cook with the eggs I've got to wack it three times to get them to crack open. Hubby thought about using egg crate padding (like on a bed) in the bottom of the box, but I think that's a terrible idea. They will scratch it up, work it loose eat it, and it will be impossible to clean. Additionally a box where the eggs roll back and out isn't really an option in our current set up.
Second problem this needs to be a fairly cheap fix. Hubby has been out of work for a while, and we've been saving up egg money to expand and fix the run. We've had a few preditor problems since moving, and we are going to mostly be spending money to shore up a few problems with the run. For example, at the last place, we didn't have any trouble with animals digging in, just hawks and a few racoons. Now we have coyottes digging under and pulling birds out that are very close to the fense. (This is happening during the day, early morning late evening, not at night when they are in the coop.)
Anyone have any ideas, they want to share.
