Milk crates?

[chickaboo7]

I have a bunch of plastic milk crates. Can I use them for nest boxes? Should I leave them upright or turn them on there sides?

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

I would turn them to a side and put in some straw. They may lay in it

 

[Patchofheaven]

We use them also, we turned them side ways and stacked them. What was funny was that none of the chickens used the bottom row of crates - so we decided to mount them against the wall, off of the floor and now they are using the bottom ones the most.
Another thing is that our chickens didn't like shavings inside the crates, they only like hay.

 

[Buckguy20]

I have mine upright and attached to a board on the wall of the chicken house. If you just set them on the floor, they can draw moisture plus they will need weight in the bottom or they will tip over.
If you put them on their side then you need something to keep the eggs from rolling out or getting scratched out. Also on mine, the holes are bigger on the sides than on the bottom.
The only problem I have is that some of the hens want to roost in them.

 

[Maggie3]

My husband made really nice nest boxes last year and my chickens still will only lay in the milk crates.

I guess, the important thing is that their laying eggs.

 

[jab91864]

I use a few milk crates. The plastic power washes off really nicely!! Big buckets turned on their sides work great too.

If you stack them on their sides you need to use a pc of wood or something to keep eggs from rolling out the opening.

Best of luck!!

Julie

 

[HenHappy]

I use them too, on thier sides. They are super easy to clean, and I use hay and shavings in them. They all use 1 to lay in, even though there are five to choose from. When I clean the coop, they ALL decide to go lay in a different one. Silly girls.

 

[speckledhen]

I use them one done each way. Some like them rightside up, some like the sideways one. If you do it sideways, you'll need something across the front to keep the straw in, though. Here's a picture-just ignore the silly cockerel trying to stay away from the Big Girls, LOL These are the only two like this of the ten nests in there.

 

[sara]

I have milk crates (upright) in with my ameraucanas because I haven't had time to do anything different. They lay in them just fine.

 

[greginshasta]

A little hard to see in this photo, but we have effectively 3 nest boxes.

There is a wooden box that is mounted against the wall with a roost in front that allows them something to jump up to, then step in.

Above that box we mounted a piece of siding diagonally. It runs from the top of that box to the wall. That leaves a hidey-hole behind the siding, on top of the wooden box.

Then there is a milk crate buried in the straw (replaced with pine shavings since this photo).

We get eggs evenly divided between the three locations, and sometimes they just drop the egg wherever the heck they happened to be when they felt the urge.