Nesting boxes made from removable dish bins?

[gtaus]

View attachment 1832982

Very nice. I'm thinking something similar but only 3 bins and open in the back because I have an access door built into the wall.

 

[21hens-incharge]

My concern would be that they would be slippery ... that the shavings would just scoot out of the way, when they hop in ... maybe a tight bunch of straw or a piece of old carpet could/would work ...

I've never used the plastic, those that have, how does the bedding/nesting material work?

I use the dish pan nests.

Mine have a support board under as well as anti-tip boards.

I use pine shavings in mine about 2-3" thick. They do make a dent in it to lay but there is always shavings under them.

Cleaning is a breeze and if they get cracked they are cheap to replace.

The only downside I found is my really big birds do not fit comfortably. Mostly it is the giant cochins that really overfill the nest.

That coop is getting a makeover with external communal boxes very soon.

 

[gtaus]

My concern would be that they would be slippery ... that the shavings would just scoot out of the way, when they hop in ... maybe a tight bunch of straw or a piece of old carpet could/would work ...

I thought about that too. But I have never heard anyone reporting any problems. Which is why I have asked about potential disadvantages of using the plastic dish bins as nest boxes. The bins I purchased are 4 1/2 inches deep, so I don't think the shavings would be flying out of the bin when the chicken jumps in.

 

[Taj_MaChicken]

I originally bought cheap kitty litter pans to do this with, but my boyfriend opted to buy nesting boxes instead of building.

I may keep them for the duck house.

Following

 

[gtaus]

That coop is getting a makeover with external communal boxes very soon.

So, are you giving up on the plastic bin design for something you think will be better? What is the external communal box design? Thanks.

 

[gtaus]

I originally bought cheap kitty litter pans to do this with, but my boyfriend opted to buy nesting boxes instead of building...I may keep them for the duck house.

I don't have cats, but I do have some kitty litter pans which I find useful for lots of things. The kitty litter pans I have are only about half as deep as the plastic dish bins I intend to use as nest boxes, so I think the bins will be better.

I considered buying premade nesting boxes, but at $20 each for a plastic shell that gets screwed into the wall, I could not see the advantage of the premade box over making a removable nest box with the plastic dish bins. Well, I guess it's easier to just screw in the plastic premade nest box to the wall, and easy to relocate later if you want. So maybe your boyfriend thought that was a better solution for your coop.

I bought some nice rubber feeding pans for my chickens, but you could use the kitty litter pans as feeding pans. When I feed kitchen scraps to the chicks, I always put them in my feeding pan. What the chickens don't eat from the feeding pan, I carry out to the compost bin the next day. Much easier than trying to clean up the scraps from the ground. I don't want to leave rotting food around the coop/run to attract predators like skunks and raccoons. So confining the scraps to the feeding pans make my life easier.

 

[21hens-incharge]

So, are you giving up on the plastic bin design for something you think will be better? What is the external communal box design? Thanks.

I love the bins. My big coop has normal sized birds so will be keeping their bins.

My second coop has gigantic birds weighing 10+ pounds so they need more room in the nests.
I am building an external double decker that each nest will be 29" wide and 16" front to back and 18" high.

Here is a picture of my nest set with bins.

 

[Taj_MaChicken]

I don't have cats, but I do have some kitty litter pans which I find useful for lots of things. The kitty litter pans I have are only about half as deep as the plastic dish bins I intend to use as nest boxes, so I think the bins will be better.

I considered buying premade nesting boxes, but at $20 each for a plastic shell that gets screwed into the wall, I could not see the advantage of the premade box over making a removable nest box with the plastic dish bins. Well, I guess it's easier to just screw in the plastic premade nest box to the wall, and easy to relocate later if you want. So maybe your boyfriend thought that was a better solution for your coop.

I bought some nice rubber feeding pans for my chickens, but you could use the kitty litter pans as feeding pans. When I feed kitchen scraps to the chicks, I always put them in my feeding pan. What the chickens don't eat from the feeding pan, I carry out to the compost bin the next day. Much easier than trying to clean up the scraps from the ground. I don't want to leave rotting food around the coop/run to attract predators like skunks and raccoons. So confining the scraps to the feeding pans make my life easier.

After building the coop, he was done with building anything lol. We bought a house when we got ducks. He wanted something easy for the nesting boxes, that's all.

 

[gtaus]

I love the bins. My big coop has normal sized birds so will be keeping their bins.

Good to know. My chickens are normal sized so I think they will be fine in the plastic bins.

 

[gtaus]

After building the coop, he was done with building anything lol. We bought a house when we got ducks. He wanted something easy for the nesting boxes, that's all.

I can understand that after having spent about 2 weeks of dedicated time to building my 6X12 chicken coop on an old boat trailer. It was a lot more work than I had planned.

Nothing wrong with going easy as I also believe that many of us get chickens for the enjoyment, not for saving money on buying eggs. So the less effort put in and the more enjoyment taken from the project is a win in my book.