The Trap Nesting Thread

[MANOZ]

This pic shows the tight squeeze,the moment she gets that second leg in her body is coming up. The door is touched around her saddle feathers. On first they will move slow but after they get used to the door touching them they go right in.

 

[MANOZ]

 

[MANOZ]

door width should not matter its getting the right height thats important I went with a facing type of front, never gave thought to the width.

 

[MANOZ]

My setup has 10 trapnests. I check them 3 times a day. So i can trapnest a flock of 30 although I dont have 30 yet.But I will have them shortly........lol 4 times a day during the busy season

 

[MANOZ]

 

[genesis1verse1]

MANOZ,

I have now built two trap nests which seem to be working just fine. I now have a question about checking them. You have said that you check them 3 or 4 times in a day. What do you do when you check and there is a hen in there and you don't know if she has laid the egg yet? What do you do if she hasn't laid yet? Do you still wait until the next time to check again?

 

[galanie]

Mine have their heads sticking out the hole when they're finished. That's how I tell.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I brought this point up early in this thread but one of the several reasons I have yet to start trapnesting is stressing the birds. It probably wouldn't be a big deal for most people, especially if their birds are pets. I'm breeding Black Penedesencas known for dark egg color and being a wild bird. Their wildness stresses them quite easily with humans or other predators around. I'm afraid that they'll soon associate the trapnest with something dangerous - especially if I can't figure a way to release them and get their legband # without them seeing me.
Like the rest of you, I'm working to determine each hens production and egg size but also working on the darkest egg.
I just found the following site concerning stress factors that affect egg color.
http://www.darkbrowneggs.info/#/factors-affecting-shell-color/4542701177
Paragraphs 3 and 4 talk about fearfulness at the end of the laying cycle. If in fact trapnesting would stress them it would work against determining the darkest layers.

I have some small breeding apartment coops and within a couple days of putting a hen in them they quit laying so trapnesting is my best bet other than sitting by the nests all day.

I was also in a battle with my city for 9 months for the ability to keep chickens at all so putting labor and time into trapnests or anything else coop related was something I put on hold.
I recently won the battle and just picked up my permit to keep 85 chickens of which 5 can be roosters so I'm back in business.

 

[galanie]

I can't say my chickens are pets, but they are calm breeds that don't get overly excited about it all. While I can't and won't pick them up and pet them, never even tried to "tame" any, and generally let them be who they are, they are just calm. Mainly Orpingtons. I do have a dark cornish hen that gets all bent out of shape and loud about it at times but she accepts the trap nests as well. Oh she's VOCAL about wanting OUT OF THERE but will go back in next time she needs to lay.

An excitable breed such as you describe might indeed be a challenge.

 

[MANOZ]

genesis1verse1............
If the hen has not layed yet,then yes I just leave the hen alone until the next checking time. If the hen still has not layed by the next check time I then open the door and make the hen leave the nest. Yes i did say ''make'',but in a nice way.This is not always needed. I had some hens go broody but were not laying eggs.Some did lay and go broody but I have other cages for broodies so they cant occupy the trapnests like that. What I did was use a lil bamboo stick tap the wall of the inside of the box and the broody hen comes right out.They really puff their feathers up and refuse to move.

Another instance is,like one I noticed over the summer when it was very hot.Hens would get up in the trapnests and take naps then lay later.For instance,I feed between 7 and 8, around 8 :45 in check my first time. From 9-12 noon I work, at 12 I make my second check.then again at 3 then again at 5 or 6. I feed at every check time but I feed heavy at evening time or should I say the last check time. I have found this to encourages early egg laying the following day.A great deal of my hens lay before the 9 o'clock check time. If they are in the trapnests at 9 and have not layed yet then i leave them in the nests.When I check at 12 if they still have not layed then i make them leave the nest. If they wanna get back in which some of them do I let them.Some begining layers spend a whole day laying their first few eggs.Others just chill-out after morning feed and take a nap.I know because I have watched them all day. I gave this subject a great deal of my time.Raising chickens took me in a serious way and I wanted to do the best that I could.So I studied their involvement with the trapnest.

Jumping over to

ChickenCanoe's point......
I see the point you are trying to make.Anything short of cameras in every nests seems imposible for how you describe doing it.I have seen no stressing of any of my hens.I have only touched my hens to clip their feathers. I dont even touch them when I let them out daily.It is so easy for me to identify the colored legband/bands on the leg of the hen that is stepping out of the trapnest.There was never a need for me to handle to birds daily.If you are trying to keep human interaction to as least as possible and keep a trapnesting log,it can be done.It has been done!Another way would be flypens with a roo and hen only. I posted a pic earlier showing a group of flypens that was used to trapnest I thought that point was covered earlier also.Line up 5 flypens and rotate the roo from pen to pen.5 hens with their own pen no mix up possible.

But now that raises a questions in my mind? How confined of a space penwise put stress on a bird?? At what point do you consider a bird no longer wild??

The Belgian Maran's Club trapnest dark egg laying hens using similar trapnests. In the end its your decision how you wanna go about handling the subject matter.I'm still open for any other ways to improve the laying of the hen.Its been over a year and nobody came forth to answer this question intelligently.Not saying trapnesting is the only answer but it works for me,and I'm just a newbie.However,I have done my homework !!