I have external nest boxes on my coup where you lift the roof to access it to collect the eggs. When I built the coup I never got around to putting shingles on the lid. when I did add the shingles it was too heavy. My solution was to add a counter balance. I used 2 pulleys and some light weight steel cable. One end of the cable is attached to the lid. the cable goes up to the top of the wall through a pulley then over to the side and through another pulley and then down to my counter balance. The counter balance is a piece of 4" pvv pipe filled with cement. Now when I lift the lid it stays right where you put it so you don't even have to hold the lid up. I'll add a pic later tonight.
