getting in to get the eggs?

[gapeach717]

I am building my own coop and I am having THE hardest time figuring out the best way to be able to get INTO the coop to get the eggs?? I see TONS of designs and many leave me wondering how exactly am I to get to them? this is my first build, but I would be THRILLED if it was a success right off the bat!

how do you get to your eggs and can you show me your coop with the answer? I am looking at a small/medium coop for a populated area suburbs coop in an HOA neighborhood with limited funds for actually building materials, so I am trying to do the whole thing from scraps (but nicely done to not look like crapola, LOL)

TIA!!!

 

[georgiagail]

Many place the nest boxes on the outside of their coops with access to them through doors that can be locked.

Gail

 

[mikecnorthwest]

My nest box is inside the house but I have an exterior access door to collect the eggs. My nest box is also portable so I can pull it out of my large access door for cleaning. Click on my BYC page and you'll see some pics of it.

 

[gapeach717]

see some of them are what seem to be a solid room coop, but impossible to climb into or crawl into, and I always wonder how you can get the eggs? I am not extreamly handy with building things, but I want it to be safe and be able to reach them too!

 

[Capvin]

The easiest way to do this is the way Mikecnorthwest described it. You put your nest boxes up against one wall of the coop. Usually it is best to place the nest boxes on the opposite wall away from the roost area and the roost area should be higher. Like put a 2x4 accross the coop so the hens can jump up in it at night. The nest boxes can be part of the coop and just have areas seperated by wood panels. You do not need one nest box for each chicken. Several of the will share a nest box. Once you have it decided where you will put the nest boxes just cut a door opening right there so you can come from the outside, open the door and you will be looking into the rear of the nest boxes.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Like everyone else said-- the solution is to have external nest boxes that you can get to with a door to reach in! I have built a medium coop and a small coop both this way.

This first picture is of my small coop-- it's finished now, but this is the last picture I loaded to BYC of the nest box:

This is my Medium coop and as you can see-- same concept. No having to crawl in the coop. Just super easy to check on eggs...

ETA to show the "bones" of how I put the box on the frame of the coop: