ki4got-----i stand corrected on the rooster,sorry about that
galanie------a lady withpower tools is very rare here in the south,these southern bells will not get their hands dirty....lol.......wait a minute you are from texas, i may have to retract my southern bell statement ......lol now about the boxes.......well it was alot of trial and error. i think i went through like 20 doors.at first i made different sizes just to see which one would work.once i found that i tried to improve on bits i thought would make them better. i have the same problem due to different breeds and body types.i have one bird an australorp but she is on the small side,she gets into all of the boxes without touching the door.the way i managed to fix this was make them all the same 5 -5 1/2 bottom piece of door,depending on where u place the nail u can lower the door a little bit,but then i added a scrap piece of board 1/2 thick and maybe 10 inches long. it just sits on the floor of the box in the inside maybe 2 inches from front.what happens is it acts as a step.i noticed that some of my birds didnt step on the front bottom lip to enter,some stepped completely over the lip,[the lip is to keep door from swinging outside the box] so i elevated the floor so to speak.so far it has worked.if u look at the pics of my barred rock where she's sticking her head in the box,u can see its a close fit,from the back of the neck at shoulders and the bottom underneath the breast.this is what u look for.dont give to much room because the barred rock in the pic is actually in the box,just her tail causes the door to move. i have others that the doors touch but they all touch somewhere between the tail and back of the neck.extremely different body sizes will not work,u may need to adjust for the smaller birds.when they first started using them they were more cautious than now.at first they were not used to the doors but now they push through just like they try to push through 2x4 wire.they no longer try to slip in without touching anything.
i think they actually like the privacy of these boxes. some will get in them and take a nap then lay.
see the gowell box with the circle and wire trigger,this type should work for all size birds, prof.gowell designed 2 boxes the one explained and one he didnt explain.i built the one he didnt explain in his book.the one with the upright arm,both of these would work for small and large birds,
hope this helps, let me know how it goes
the pivot point of the wire trigger is at the top,wire moves side to side, the book states that a tack was put on the bottom of door,this tack sat on top of the wire.when the bird pushes through the circle this moves the wire which lets the door drop.
