Nesting Boxes for Seramas

[Bloomin' Chickens]

This is my questions. My new and amazing chicken coop is finished (as much as can be finished because it's getting cold here in St. Charles, Illinois). My Coop is divided and the big chickens are on one side with their own outside run and nesting boxes built into the side of the house. On the other side of the coop I have (3) Silkie Hens, (1) Polish Hen, (1) Cochin Hen, (2) Serama Cockerels and (3) Serama Pullets more to come in the spring. The small chicken side is a clean slate, except for a temporary roost. My husband is going to build nesting boxes on the small chicken side. The smaller chickens are different sizes and have different abilities to get into the boxes ie.. the seramas can fly, the cochin has a hard enough time walking and the Polish can't see with that lovely head of feathers she has. If you had a clean slate and could build nesting boxes tailor made to each chickens needs, what ideas can you come up with. Pictures, Drawings, Detailed directions are a must, cause my husband and I are visual people. Don't need eggs to roll out, since the coop is built I don't want to break thru the outside wall to make outside boxes. Maybe incorporate some perches outside the boxes etc... What will spoil my chickens more then they already are. I will try to take pics tomorrow of the coop and give you inside measurements. I hope I don't have a problem posting the pics, I've never done it before.

 

[elmo]

I love to use plastic storage bins, like these ones:

http://www.homzproducts.com/Scripts/Small-Durabuilt-Modular-Storage-Boys-Prodview.html

I also use a lidded plastic kitty litter box, the round one made by Booda.

The plastic is very easy to keep clean and there are no crevices for mites to hide in. Portable nestboxes have two advantages. It's easy to clean a portable nestbox: you just take it over to the composter to dump out the contents, hose it down if it's dirty, leave it in the sun to dry, then refill with fresh bedding. Because it's so easy, I tend to clean the nestboxes more frequently, which also helps prevent mite infestations.

The second advantage to a portable nestbox is the management of broodies. When our hens went broody in these boxes, I simply picked the box up with the hen and her nest inside and move the box where I wanted to put the broody. The hens never so much as twitched a feather. This was extremely handy, since I was nervous about leaving the nestbox down on the ground in the run overnight, and it was getting too hot inside the coop during the day. I ended up moving my broodies around in their boxes every day, several times.