Plans for Nesting Boxes

[gsim]

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As you can see, I just used 12 x 12 x 3"deep plastic boxes. Easy to clean. I just use grass clippings for litter and for nests. Free and smells good.

 

[knjinnm]

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Hi,
Where did you find the boxes? Are they cut down milk/storage bins?

Happy new Year BYC'ers

Joe

 

[gsim]

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Hi,
Where did you find the boxes? Are they cut down milk/storage bins?

Happy new Year BYC'ers

Joe

They are some sort of parts bins. I was given 4 dozen by my son. I put too many nests in. I started with 24 chooks and needed only 6 nests instead of the 12 I did. Lots of time they will crowd into one nest while the 11 other ones are empty. I think my mistake is a common one for rookies. I plan to remove 6 of them and install two feed box gravity feeders that will handle 100# each of pelletized feed.

 

[sheilawagner]

This is what we build ourselves.

It is just pieces of wood which we recycled, so we didn't have to spend a single cent on this condo of nest boxes. Only the top 2 levels of 5 nest boxes are being used right now. The lowest level is being used for bedding by the silkies who decide not to roost. The silkies are quirky that way. Some days they'll roost like normal chickens, and some other days, they prefer to sleep together in nestboxes.

Each hen has her own favorite box, and some of the large fowl hens share with bantams hens. They really don't mind, and move from one communal nest box to another.

 

[knjinnm]

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Yes it's not unusual for hens to all lay in the same open box.

If you can build enclosed nest boxes with a round hole front. It gives the hens a sense of privacy, they think they are hiding their eggs. I bet they will start using more of the boxes.

Happy New year BYC'ers!

 

[zekii]

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Very nice looking nest box setup, looks like this group of nest boxes is portable if you wanted to move it versus fastened to the wall.
This might be a good option for our coop also.

 

[briteday]

Grey plastic garage storage bins from Lowes, about $8 each. Not free, but I didn't have luck with buckets or milk crates. And the materials and time to build boxes would cost more than $8 each.

I have four nests for 23 hens, about 15 eggs per day at this time of year. Bunches of them tend to use the same nest boxes every day. One nest gets about 8 eggs/day. Another nest only gets 2 eggs/day. And one of the other nests is often occupied by the perennially broody resident silkie! So no one gets to lay an egg there...

 

[knjinnm]

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So which nest box gets eight eggs? Which box get two eggs/day? is the silkie in the bottom left? I notice what looks like a ISA waiting her turn in the box.

Joe

 

[briteday]

The lower right nest gets about 8 eggs per day. The upper left gets 2-3 per day. The silkie allows the a rare ISA to join her and then keeps their eggs warm (nice for me now that the days are sometimes very cold here!). The upper right nest seems to be the least popular but it does tend to get a few eggs most days.

 

[knjinnm]

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Cover the top boxes with plywood to make them a bit more secluded, then they will probably get more attention from the hens.
Joe