Opinion on nesting boxes

[Renee572]

We turned an old dresser into our nesting boxes, so far we have 1 layer and she will not lay in the boxes. Honestly I haven't even seen any of my chickens checking out the boxes. I have fake eggs in there as I have read that suggested. If my kids weren't the ones responsible for doing chicken chores I would be fine with wherever they laid their eggs in the coop but I am afraid my kids won't be observant and they will end up stepping on them. Anyway I was wondering if you guys could look at my setup and see if I should change it to be more inviting, I have some ideas but maybe I just need to give my girl some more time to figure it out. Here's a pic.


I have thought about taking the dividers back out and just putting the 2nd and 4th drawers back in, either putting the dish pans inside the drawers or just putting the wood chips into the drawers themselves. And maybe adding some fabric to the top to give the girls more privacy. If you can see to the left of the dresser there is kind of a dark space in the corner and that is where my BA likes to lay her egg so I am wondering if she needs some more privacy. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Renee572]

Alright it's done, took me an hour but it's done and I'm proud. And now I'm just sitting outside waiting for my girls to try the boxes out.

before

during

after

I don't have straw yet so just used wood chips. I put the dish pans in the bottom drawer and they are in there snug, the top drawer I just filled with wood chips to see if they prefer it without the dishpans. I squeezed one of the dish pans on the side where my BA has laid a couple eggs to see if she'll lay in the pan. And finally I added some pretty curtains and golf balls. Nothing fancy but hopefully it'll get my girls to lay in the boxes.

I've got a few looking at it with interest...

 

[aart]

Fronts of my nest boxes are covered with plywood with a hole for entry.....makes it a little darker, holds in the bedding and looks cool IMO.
A perch in front of nests can surely help, a necessity if they're off the floor very far.
I used golf balls in nest when I got my adult flock, tho the rooster actually got into a double nest to show them where to lay.
My new layers wouldn't use the nest until I took the golf balls out.

This is a solid model of my main coop nests with back access(dividers aren't shown).
Dimensions for each division is 14" wide, 16" tall and 14" deep, hole is 10" diameter centered 7" from top.



This is the nest I just cobbled together yesterday for my junior coop...have 2 just starting to lay.
I was using a 5 gallon bucket here but felt it was just a little small for comfortable maneuvering.
Dimensions are 14" wide, 16" tall and 16" deep, hole is 10" diameter centered 7" from top.

 

[Renee572]

Nope... looks like a cat litter box, the ones with the top which I did think about using but went for repurposing an old dresser we got for free from someone.

 

[MeepBeep]

Question, has anyone used this type of nesting box?

Interesting box desing, I might have fire up my vacuum forming table and make a few like that to try out...

 

[MeepBeep]

Quote:
http://www.fallharvestproducts.com/item112.htm

 

[Renee572]

Thanks mamadawn, I plan on working on my nest boxes today for sure and will take your suggestions. I am assuming what you said did happen, I know the girls had been checking out the next boxes because at first I found a few feathers in them but one flipped and wood chips everywhere so I can only assume it freaked the girls out and they are no longer interested in going anywhere near the boxes. Hopefully after I fix them it will be different enough that they will be curious again. I'll let you know how it goes!

 

[aart]

Cool Beans, Chicken Beans!

They probably will, it can take a good month for them to get it all figured out.

 

[Renee572]

Update!!! I now have all 4 of my chickens laying eggs... I started this month with only 1 layer and now have 4, how awesome is that!! Anyway after I finally convinced my 2nd layer to lay her egg in the nest box the 3rd one to start followed her lead! Then a few days later my 1st layer took the hint and decided the other 2 were laying in a good spot so she did too. And today my final layer laid her egg in the nest box! Yay, I am so excited, I was almost certain my girls would never lay in the box. I did put a porcelain egg in there but I don't think it was the fake egg that convinced them though, I think they really needed to see each others eggs in there to decide it was a good spot!!

 

[aart]

My nest boxes: on the left are two old kitchen cabinets, the six boxes on the right are made from an aquarium stand (plywood) I made years ago, I just partitioned it and hung it up. Are they too high? I keep seeing boxes much closer to the floor. The lower left box is only a foot off the ground, the dirt floor of the barn rises to the right in this pic and the far right box is approx 3 feet off the floor. Ten boxes are plenty I believe(I have 28 or 30 chickens, depending on how much they move around while I do a head count lol).

IMO they are too high, mostly because you want your nests lower than your roosts and they need easy access to both.
Can't tell how big your coop is and if they have room to fly down without crashing into something.
Those nests also need perches about 8" out from the fronts..... and about 4" high front lips to keep bedding and egg inside.