What do you put in your nest boxes?

[slordaz]

I keep mine shut in their max security pen until most have laid. Since I found a nest of 7/8 eggs in a clumpnof weeds. They get to free range once they leave the good where I can find them.

doesn't work so well when your flock does a staggered molt and half aren't laying anyway or so you think

 

[15WildTurkey]

I know, mine are all pullets too so I’m not even sure if everyone is laying yet. I have 16 pullets, we have been getting around 10 a day. The number is steadily climbing.

 

[Wisewillow]

Does the feed bag just give a little more cushion and warmth? How often do you have to replace them?

 

[SurferchickinSB]

We won't need them for a while but I'm wondering what material y'all use in your nest boxes. Hay? Straw? Shavings? I don't know what else... What's worked best for you and why? All opinions/options welcome!!

I like excelsior straw or pine needles and I can get both for free !

 

[Folly's place]

My nest boxes are plastic 'egg crates', so there's not a solid bottom on any of them. I like the ventilation on all sides, and use the empty feed bags as padding and to make a solid floor for each box. Then I add whatever's handy, shavings, hay, straw, or some combination.
Easy to clean out, and change the feed bag if it gets dirty.
Mary

 

[CalBickieMomma]

We live on an acre and a quarter, and in the back pasture the weeds are just allowed to grow as they will (lots of thin grasses and such). About mid to late summer, my dad mows it all down and after another week or so, I rake it all up and store it in large metal trash cans, adding in herbs and such between the layers (I use rosemary, mint, lavender, eucalyptus leaves (the new ones (with white powder on them) are good for deterring fleas, too), and leaves from my lime tree). I like using this material because 1.) it's free 2.) it's what my girls would probably use if I could free-range them 3.) the herbs make it smell nice .

 

[Folly's place]

Nice!

 

[mdquilts]

I cut some foam anti fatigue floor mats to fit snug in each box then topped with shavings and hay.

 

[Folly's place]

Anything like that is good! Comfortable and cleanable. As long as the idiot birds don't chew it up and eat it!
Mary

 

[Ebony Rose]

We won't need them for a while but I'm wondering what material y'all use in your nest boxes. Hay? Straw? Shavings? I don't know what else... What's worked best for you and why? All opinions/options welcome!!

I've been using shredded paper since January. Prior to that, I've tried straw, grass clippings, sand and rice husk. Don't try sand; it sticks to the wet shells, candling afterward reveals that it removes part of the protective coating on the shell too. Although reasonably inexpensive, straw is a pain for me to obtain because I don't drive, and pickup taxis cost 2-3 times more than a regular car-taxi making it an expensive option for me. Rice husks work well, but they get everywhere. Grass clippings when I have them are very nice, but the key phrase is 'when I have them'. Grass gets cut once a month for about eight months, and then a long four month span of time when it doesn't need or get cut. I have an office-type of paper shredder that I run spent newpapers, empty cereal boxes, old used sheets of notepaper and the like through. I don't use any shiny paper as it's my understanding that it's coated (clay coated?), and I don't use thermal printed items such as receipts as the paper is chemically treated. The chickens really like the paper too, sometimes eating a bit. It's super easy to dispose of moist or dirty bits of the nest and can be composted.