Ha, a doer I see! Congrats, very smart choice, big benefits. Stick with communal, they'll be fine, and it's more efficient.
Obviously you can't use straw (the eggs wouldn't roll, so ideally, you'll want a plastic astro turf with fairly long bristles. My chickens scratch at it sometimes when they're trying to get in the mood to lay.
This is a pretty fancy setup with plastic coated half inch hardware cloth, that's bent to make the wire level with the mat.
You don't need all that. What you've got will work fine. If you want to go up a notch, make the bottom of your nesting box half inch hardware cloth, put the open weave astro turf on top, and then most dirt and debris the chickens track into your nesting box will sift down through the mat, through the wire, and onto the floor. It's no biggie though, you've already gotten the major benefits with your box, the clean eggs, and no poopy straw.
HenGear.com sells the mats if you want, you can cut them easily if your size is a little different.
Here's a link to their pad it's $10.
https://hengear.com/products/nest-pad-large
Oh, I almost forgot, you definitely want a curtain. Here's a photo.
This particular box is 24 inches wide with a five inch opening in the center. Two hens use it all the time. The curtain stops short of the bottom by 3/4 of an inch.
Hengear used to use a V cut in the curtain, and have switched to this rectangular cut. They claim the hens like it more, so I'd go that way if I were you. Not only does hengear sell the boxes, they have thousands of laying hens on their own farm, they have real experience.
I think the curtain is probably some kind of vinyl, with a white cloth embedded. You can kind of see it in this photo. Take this photo to a large fabric shop and I'll bet they'll know exactly what this is. It is waterproof and stays flexible, even in low temperatures.
This box is rated for up to 20 hens. I've got 12, and it works great. Two will get in there, and others will patiently wait if it's busy. I love the efficiency, people have gotten it into their heads, you need one box for every five hens, it just isn't so. The owners may not be, but the chickens are just fine with one box. You simply make the one box a little bigger.
Same old story, what governs us isn't the truth, it's what we think is the truth. All our limits are self imposed by our own thinking.
Haha, I took this picture at night, boy does the flash make dirt or anything else really pop out. This reminds me of those videos 60 minutes might show of a hotel room, using a special filter that sees all the awful stains on absolutely everything in the room. Completely grosses me out, and probably everyone else too!
Obviously you can't use straw (the eggs wouldn't roll, so ideally, you'll want a plastic astro turf with fairly long bristles. My chickens scratch at it sometimes when they're trying to get in the mood to lay.
This is a pretty fancy setup with plastic coated half inch hardware cloth, that's bent to make the wire level with the mat.
You don't need all that. What you've got will work fine. If you want to go up a notch, make the bottom of your nesting box half inch hardware cloth, put the open weave astro turf on top, and then most dirt and debris the chickens track into your nesting box will sift down through the mat, through the wire, and onto the floor. It's no biggie though, you've already gotten the major benefits with your box, the clean eggs, and no poopy straw.
HenGear.com sells the mats if you want, you can cut them easily if your size is a little different.
Here's a link to their pad it's $10.
https://hengear.com/products/nest-pad-large
Oh, I almost forgot, you definitely want a curtain. Here's a photo.
This particular box is 24 inches wide with a five inch opening in the center. Two hens use it all the time. The curtain stops short of the bottom by 3/4 of an inch.
Hengear used to use a V cut in the curtain, and have switched to this rectangular cut. They claim the hens like it more, so I'd go that way if I were you. Not only does hengear sell the boxes, they have thousands of laying hens on their own farm, they have real experience.
I think the curtain is probably some kind of vinyl, with a white cloth embedded. You can kind of see it in this photo. Take this photo to a large fabric shop and I'll bet they'll know exactly what this is. It is waterproof and stays flexible, even in low temperatures.
This box is rated for up to 20 hens. I've got 12, and it works great. Two will get in there, and others will patiently wait if it's busy. I love the efficiency, people have gotten it into their heads, you need one box for every five hens, it just isn't so. The owners may not be, but the chickens are just fine with one box. You simply make the one box a little bigger.
Same old story, what governs us isn't the truth, it's what we think is the truth. All our limits are self imposed by our own thinking.
Haha, I took this picture at night, boy does the flash make dirt or anything else really pop out. This reminds me of those videos 60 minutes might show of a hotel room, using a special filter that sees all the awful stains on absolutely everything in the room. Completely grosses me out, and probably everyone else too!
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