Nesting box roofs: flat vs angled?

[Egg Rookie 2010]

And Im asking because of this: I researched here a BUNCH. I saw you ought to angle the roof so birds wont hang out on top of the nesting boxes. My problem is this: my helpers who showed up today put a flat roof on the boxes and I am out of wood (it isnt wide enough to just readjust so it angles) So do I take to top off and go buy more wood or what? Is the reason you dont want birds up there because they will poop all over or is it cause they interfere with nest box useage? Whats the worst that could happen if I leave it like this? You can see the photo has the egg collection doors open...

 

[dkosh]

I have both in my coops. The only thing is the poop needing to be scraped off occassionally from the flat roof. I'd leave it, unless you don't like the look of it. Your friends did a nice job on the coop.

 

[MyBlackHen]

They'll definitely poop all over it. If you have some chicken wire hanging around, you could just attach that at an angle where the angled roof would have been. Then they can't hang out up there and you don't have to bother replacing the roof. Just a thought for a quick, low cost solution.

have fun!

 

[chicks4kids]

I totally agree with the poop factor...I learned that after I built my flat top nest boxes, so up went chicken wire to keep them from pooping up there. Of course you could put their roost above that and have a make shift poop board.

 

[Egg Rookie 2010]

Ok well this all sounds good. I have linoleum I can put on top for easy scraping. I AM putting in a poop board and roost on the opposite wall and will have enough linoleum to put on the roof, poop board and in the nest boxes. Ill just have one more surface to scrape I guess. I have 15 birds coming (one roo 14 girls) and the roo is Cochin and a few of the girls are Jersey Giants...they are big...so maybe they would like a little more room to spread out over there. The wire idea is good too.

 

[cluckin tractor]

if ur going to put wire up
make it so u can pull it down as dust will pile up


i had the same trouble but a bit of tin on a ngle fixed it

the hollow space behind does get used by the uncontrolable mice but i often use that space to store things like containers, scrapers, powder etc