Nesting Box Idea...Is it a dumb idea?

[ashlieneevel]

I use home designer pro software. It is by a company called Chief Architect Its just the free trial so it doesn't allow you to save but everything else is fully functional. I just take screenshots if I want a pic of it. I find google sketchup hard to work. I know its better for modeling than what I am using as this program is for building houses but i get pretty creative with it and it all works out. When im finished with the chicken barn im designing i'll post a pic of it on this thread

 

[Ridgerunner]

As a retired engineer I believe a good designer knows when he is finished, not when there is nothing else to add but when there is nothing else to take away. Simplify! Simplify! Still, it can be a lot of fun to try things.

You can find plenty of videos on the internet of a chicken actually laying an egg. The hen stands up and she projects part of the egg canal out of the vent some to keep the egg isolated from other things in the vent. It comes out with some force and drops a bit. Hens do this all the time with golf balls or other eggs in the nest. The egg hardly ever cracks because of this. They can drop a bit onto foam without breaking.

More than one hen will use the same nest to lay an egg. You want the egg to roll downhill so you need a slope and surface that causes the egg to roll but does not let it get up enough speed to crack when it hits another egg that was laid earlier. You may want to experiment with store-bought eggs to get that worked out.

There is a reason the vast number of roll-out nests are made the way they are. They work and they are not especially hard to build. Someone else has gone through the frustration of working out surfaces and slopes. A hen is obviously comfortable enough to use them.

If you want to try to reinvent the wheel, go for it. Don’t let me discourage you. It can be a lot of fun. But yes, you are projecting your thoughts of comfort onto a hen.

 

[ashlieneevel]

I said I would post screenshots of the coop I just designed so here it is. Its a lot of pic. I first created a bunch of square rooms with interior dimensions of 7x7ft and removed interior walls to create the spaces. I'm a bit of a psycho about things being symetrical thats why everything is matchy matchy lol.

This is the front of the chicken barn and run. bushes completely wrap around the entire thing.



Front right side angle showing that part of the run is covered and other is covered in hardware cloth. Second story added for ventilation.


Right side view


Right rear angle


Rear view


Left rear angle


Left rear angle directly inside run. (Run dimensions 16ft deep by 56 ft in length on 3 sides)(( I intentionally left support poles out of the run because it was too much work to put them in obviously there would need to be supports lol))


Inside run side view of coop exterior. The other side is identical

Going in the front door into the storage area. There is a storage area in the front and back of the building that is identical. the room width is 7 ft and 21 and change ft at its longest part


Inside front door/hall looking left. I threw in some cabinets and a sink just to put something in there so the room wasn't bare


From interior door looking out and left. I put in some more cabinetry to fill up the space so i could take these pics for you lol


Going through interior door towards the center aisle from the front storage area. Rear door is the door to the rear storage area and matching coops are to the left and right. Ceiling fan there for obvious reasons and the black dot on the ground in the center is a drain in case water comes in through the ventilation on the second story or for washing out the coops.


further inside center aisle


Facing the left coop but the right side is identical to this.


Facing far wall of coop which is 14.5 ft long by 7ft wide. Has 6 nest boxes. 5 perches. The longest perch is 8 ft up. The 2 perches in the center are 6 ft up and the perches on the far side are 4ft up. I didn't bother putting in the things to attach or brace them because i was lazy. The ceiling height is 10ft high in the coop


Inside coop front left corner


Inside coop rear left corner. The perches really kind junk up the view and the depth perception gets thrown off because of them but there is actually plenty of space between and above and below them for chicken movement. 2 ft vertical and around 3 or so feet between the shorter width ones


half way up from first floor to the second story ventilation area. I put the exterior siding on the inside because with such large windows at the top there would be a greater likelihood of water coming in if there was heavy rain blowing in. Plus i like the color LOL



up at the top of the ventilation area. the small window is 2.5 x 2.5 and the long windows are 12ft by 2.5


Directly out the back door looking back at it. Notice half the run is covered for inclement weather and the other half is covered by hardware cloth. so 8 ft covered 8 ft open for sunshine. I didnt bother taking pics of the back storage area because its the same dimensions as the front


Part of the run is missing but thats ok because the whole purpose of this pic was to show the floor plan anyway


And last but not least the whole thing complete with the plants around it. The run is a little more than 2,000 sq ft. The 828 sq ft is including the exterior walls. The seconds story isnt included by that is 14.5x7




So there ya have it more pics than you probably cared to see but since you asked about the program I used for the thing I thought Id show you what I can create on my program. Sorry to everyone for a post on this thread that was off topic to the thread.


Have a good day

 

[ashlieneevel]

lol Thanks Ridge Runner I'm probably a little too concerned with chicken comfort lol

 

[Mio0605]

I love the idea. Perhaps having me eggs initially fall into a "hammock"- tight netting, or soft cloth would help?

 

[PapaChaz]

wow that looks incredible! you're gonna have to take out a mortgage to build it, but it looks incredible!

 

[ashlieneevel]

good idea Mio!!

PapaChaz it would cost a pretty penny thats for sure lol. I estimate around 25-30 thousand but im probably way off with that. I have a bad habit of designing chicken mansions lol.

 

[Hokum Coco]

I like the idea of the nesting boxes that are fixed in such a way that the egg rolls out but those nesting boxes

Nothing wrong with trying to build a better mouse trap.

Hope it works for you keep us posted backyard buddy.

 

[speedy2020]

How much is the project cost? It is beautiful design.

 

[arkwelded]

I thought i went in deep. That is a crazy coop. It would cost that much I'd you do all the work yourself. I would say like 10k. It seems like our would be really nice if you had a decent sized flock.
I only have 30 birds so i don't have a huge coop. My girls spend most of there time outdoors and around the yard anyway even in winter. The only days they didn't was when it was below 10 degrees them they hung out in my run, I cover that I plastic sheeting so they get light but are out of the wind. They get mad if they can't dig in the compost pile or root around in the wood piles.