external nest box building tips...

[kleinheksel farm]

hello all...

so i built a chicken coop this past spring. it turned out great and i'm very happy with it, but i was rushed to get the chicks in it because they were out-growing their brooder. in my haste, i left out building the nest boxes that i really wanted. i want to build some external nest boxes before winter hits, but i'm having a tough time finding info on building them to an already existing coop. i'm no builder, but i think i could make it work with some good info. any pictures of your external nest boxes and how they are structured would be greatly appreciated. here are some pics of my coop right now.

i'm thinking about putting the nest boxes off the left hand side of the coop in the first picture... like i said, any pictures or advice would be appreciated. i'm kinda worried about not making it strong enough to hold a couple of chickens plus the shingles on it and everything. also, i was originally thinking of having the roof of the boxes hinged to get eggs out, but now i'm leaning towards having the front hinged so i dont have to worry as much about water leaking through the hinge on top.

 

[wava1vaughn]

Hi from Ga.

Here are a couple of mine.

 

[kleinheksel farm]

thanks for the quick post

how are they attached to the coop... i guess that's my main question along with supports to the wall.

 

[gale65]

This is how we'll be building ours. It opens from the front (or is it the back?) rather than the roof.

http://www.thegardencoop.com/blog/2011/03/10/external-nest-box-plans/

 

[Ole rooster]

This is the way I did it.

The support is cantilevered out 12 inches and the box slid in the opening for the box and resting n the support. I attached it on both sides and caulked all the way around the outside. The 4 inches of the wall and the 12 of the support gave me a 16 inch box depth.

 

[Hawkeye95]

this is my nest box- I would think it would be fairly easy to add to any structure. The entire structure is made of 2X4's and is VERY sturdy and wrapped in plywood where you can then put your siding over it. It does not open from the top (roof)... it will open from the front side to avoid any roof leaking into the box. It will have two separate doors that will drop down on piano hinges (lock at the top near the nest box roof line) to open up. I have not added dividers or the doors yet... it's still a work in progress. All of this is on my "View my BYC Page", too. I am going to lay down a vinyl floor in the nest box before I add the dividers so that it will be extra easy to clean up.