DIY make your own original nesting boxes! What do yours look like? Post your pics here!

[Farming Frenzy]

Do you have any original nesting boxes that you can make at home?
I have a friend who uses old boxes and drawers for her nesting places. Her chicks love to sit in them as they're close to the ground.Post pics of your nesting boxes. Do you have an easy-to-build nesting box building method or tip?

Also- who thinks pine nettles are good bedding material? I heard they are so acid they keep the mites away. i think it works!

 

[zazouse]

these are filled with my annoying broodies
I have tried leaves and other material but i always came back to using pine shavings, i never had a problem with mites but if pine needles help keep off mites then pine shavings will work even better , i add fresh shavings to my buckets every week and clean the buckets a few times a year or as needed.

 

[Farming Frenzy]

wow that looks amazing! Do they take up a lot of room? Your coop must be reammy big! Cause I can count at least 23 buckets there. how many chickens??

 

[autumnjanene]

Are those Marans in those nesting boxes? We're building our Marans coop and wanted to do bucket nesting boxes but weren't sure if those were going to be big enough for them. But your buckets look great and your girls look comfortable!

 

[zazouse]

I don't have coops, just a brooder, all my birds are totally free ranged, the nesting area is also the roosting area for some i have roost on the opposite side.
I do not know how many chickens i have, i can guess and say a couple 100, i get a five gallon bucket of eggs from the nest boxes and the hens that lay elsewhere i don't mess with their eggs, there is always hens here to sit them and that keeps my flocks going as i use culls for dog food and my eggs feed my family and my birds also.

 

[zazouse]

Are those Marans in those nesting boxes? We're building our Marans coop and wanted to do bucket nesting boxes but weren't sure if those were going to be big enough for them. But your buckets look great and your girls look comfortable!

No Marans there are all different kinds some mixed ,some pure
My biggest hens weigh about 8 pounds and they fit just fine ,one of my muscovey ducks sits in them, i hatched some goose eggs under here when i found her sitting an empty nest.

 

[CyndiChick]

I'll have to get a picture but I bought a box of scrap wood at a yardsale for about 50 cents and built a nesting box and two feeders out of it. The nesting box is a big square one and I haven't been able to set it in the coop for them yet as a mama wren decided to nest there and has 6 itty bitty eggs in it. Oh well... it is a nesting box right?

 

[Farming Frenzy]

anything that your hens can sit in compfortably is considered a nesting box. - and those ducklings are ADORABLE!!!! I had three ducklings last year, bought them from a farmer.They grow super fast!

 

[Habibs Hens]

WOW looks cool

one thing though do they have safe passage up and down from the higher levels

like a ramp of some sort

I ask this as jumping from great heights back down is a root cause of bumble foot

 

[zazouse]

I'll have to get a picture but I bought a box of scrap wood at a yardsale for about 50 cents and built a nesting box and two feeders out of it. The nesting box is a big square one and I haven't been able to set it in the coop for them yet as a mama wren decided to nest there and has 6 itty bitty eggs in it. Oh well... it is a nesting box right?

Those wrens are fast, i was working in the woods and the rains came. i had left a towel hanging on my chair out there and a week later when it dried up i ot back to work, went to move the towel and found a wren nest inside it, so like you i waited till the hatch was done before i removed the towel.

Can't wait to see what you make of your scrap, i love to repourpse stuff, living on a farm we repourpose many things over and over again.
Made this brooder box out of a pallet and some scrap wood, i can move it around with my tractor.