Question about Nest Box pricing

[toletiquesbysam]

In our search for a chicken coop we came upon a lady who has a nest box that has 3rows with 5 nests in each row. It is a metal nest box and we asked if we could purchase that from her. She doesn't know what to ask for it and we don't know what to pay for it so asking you all for a fair price to offer her. There were alot of things in front of it so I couldn't get close to see the shape it was in but from what I could see of it, looked good.
I hope I posted this in an ok topic, if not I'm sorry! Thank You! Sam

 

[tvtaber]

Assuming you need one so large (that would work for 60 hens, more or less) I think $100 would be fair. Those are pricey and last pretty much forever. However, if you havce a smaller number of hens you can make nest boxes out of buckets, rubbermaid things, shoe boxes, etc, for practically free.

 

[lurky]

Wow, that sounds like it will take up a lot of space in the coop. How many chickens are you planning on?

 

[toletiquesbysam]

We're only going to have about 12-15 chickens, I know it's too many nests for them and I'm not sure it the rows can be seperated. But DH loves the look of the nice nests for them. Our coop is 8 x8 x 16 so we have room for it in there. I was thinking $50 but I knew I was a bit on the soft side there, $100 sounds better! Thanks!!

 

[willheveland]

Quote:

Why not build one out of wood.A few dish pans and some scrap wood would do it.You only need 1 box per 5 or so.I've seen the metal ones rot out the bottoms because of the manure.The dish pans wash out easy and can be filled with shavings. Will

 

[scrapmom5]

You can make them for less than that. My husband built ours from recycled wood and painted them. The only cost we had was for the nails and bedding. Everything else was recycled stuff. I posted some pics so that you could see his handywork. You can see in the pics that he was experimenting with different paint patterns. I told him that hens like their nest box dark. He says he likes it bright. He even patterened one box so it had a decorative flair. He was also concerned with size so he made some dark, some lighter, some big, and some smaller. Since these photos were taken he has even added 2X4 trim around the top with straw so that you don't see some of the poop. My hens just love their boxes and will lay in any of them. Apparently they don't need the different colors.

Edited to add that our nest boxes could accomodate about 24-30 hens, we currently have 20.

 

[lockedhearts]

Quote:
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj176/willheveland/nestbox.jpg

Why not build one out of wood.A few dish pans and some scrap wood would do it.You only need 1 box per 5 or so.I've seen the metal ones rot out the bottoms because of the manure.The dish pans wash out easy and can be filled with shavings. Will

That is the coolest nest box set up I have ever seen! I am showing this to hubby, he tends to go overboard in building but this is awesome. It would fit right in with the "Taj Mah Coop"

 

[toletiquesbysam]

Willheveland-
I LOVE your nest boxes, they are great and ingenious with the tubs! We are NOT handy people so we could not make anything like this, we'd have to hire someone to do it! I have seen numerous nesting box ideas that were simple and something I could put together but I think DH will win this one and he'll pay the $100 to get these nests!
She's a newly widowed lady and he wants to help her out and help us in the process!
Thanks!
Sam

 

[Mr_Jeff]

We have four units that are almost exactly like the ones described. I wont use them because they are enormous and a pain in the butt to deal with. They are leftover from an old chicken farm on our property. Fifteen nest boxes per unit, all galvanized, cannot be disassembled to build a unit with fewer boxes, and round openings. My wife cannot get it through her head why they are impractical, she's being nostalgic and just wants to use something from the old farm. Plus she believes that each and every chicken should have their own little private apartment. I told her if we had a hundred chickens, then we might get some use out of just one of these things. It's like talking to a wall sometimes, but I love her anyway.

Willheveland-
That's a sharp looking, simple, and stunningly practical setup you have for nest boxes. What are the dimensions? Particularly the depth used to accomodate those dishpans.

 

[toletiquesbysam]

Mr Jeff-
The ones we're looking at do not have the circle openings they are square. This one doe not look too old, at least the parts I can see. DH called the lady and she said the coop was never used, that her SIL wanted to have the chickens and got it all set up and then was told he'd have to build a "run" for the chickens and windows and the place had no ventilation so he just quit! He built another longer row of nest boxes on top of this galvanized one with about 8 more nests in it so he must have wanted a ton of chickens!! Sooo we'll see we're going back next week to see what else she is wanting to get rid of and I'm sure we'll be leaving with that nest box!
We won't have chickens until Spring 09 so won't know for quite a while if the hens will like them or not!
Thank You all for your replys!
Sam