Quick question about rollout nest boxes...

[lolita117]

I've been researching different styles of rollouts. I particularly need a front roll out. How deep should I make the cubbyholes that the eggs will roll into? I read somewhere that somebody didn't make their deep enough and the chickens could still reach them but they didn't specify the size it was.
I have an egg eater problem

 

[foulplay]

what do you mean by depth is that how big the hole is for egg to leave or how far until they stop rolling? Good luck with egg eating problem

 

[lolita117]

what do you mean by depth is that how big the hole is for egg to leave or how far until they stop rolling? Good luck with egg eating problem

How far they stop rolling once they enter the compartment. I guess I should have dimension - the length being the length of the next box and the width being....?

 

[foulplay]

Found this on the internet it might help you. I would make the hole for the roll out bigger than the egg but not big enough for the chickens to want to explore. And I would make the roll out about six inches long.

 

[lolita117]

Found this on the internet it might help you. I would make the hole for the roll out bigger than the egg but not big enough for the chickens to want to explore. And I would make the roll out about six inches long.

I found that picture too. I need front roll out, but I'm also concerned about 6-7 eggs in one box piling up. Before this egg eating fiasco, I wouldn't collect till the very end of the day sometimes and I would have up to 8 eggs in one next box. ~I just went up to the coop and had one eating an egg right in front of me. Really wanted to kill her right then and there, but I know she's not the only one. I'm trying to get the DH to help me do this, this week...

 

[foulplay]

you have probably thought about this already but I was just thinking out loud by why don't you make the area where the eggs go covered. And that could be where they jump up on to get into the nesting boxes.

 

[lolita117]

you have probably thought about this already but I was just thinking out loud by why don't you make the area where the eggs go covered. And that could be where they jump up on to get into the nesting boxes.

That's how it will be... or what I have in mind. I found theses pictures on a different BYC thread. I think its a communal nest box? Mine will be divided.


I want the top part of the compartment to be hinged so that's where I'll collect the eggs. Maybe have 1 flap per 2 nest boxes.

Here is drawing a created on Paint. The blue part is the inside floor of the nest boxes and it will be secured to the wall.

 

[foulplay]

very clever the only problem would be them reaching in and eating them so I think you will have to play with the dimensions of the roll out tray. And I hope that it is a community nest box or we have some seriously large chickens to look out for.

 

[lolita117]

very clever the only problem would be them reaching in and eating them so I think you will have to play with the dimensions of the roll out tray. And I hope that it is a community nest box or we have some seriously large chickens to look out for.

Chickzilla! lol. That was my original question was how deep I needed to make them. I'm thinking maybe 5 in from the point where they end, to the point that they stop rolling. I also will be putting some kind of curtain. Maybe black material to match the black rubber liner. So they truly never know where it went.

 

[foulplay]

black landscape fabric would work very well. Funny to see chickens face when they go and stand up and there is no egg under neath them.