What do you use for nesting box materials?

[hiddenacres]

What kind of nesting box materials do you use I want to see how many different materials are used I will start I use straw.

 

[sourland]

I like grass hay. It smells good and forms a soft well cushioned nest.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I like shavings in mine.

 

[hiddenacres]

Ok cool ideas I am trying to find many ideas for my new nesting boxes

 

[donrae]

I use whatever I have. It's usually pine shavings or grass hay.

 

[Kelsie2290]

I usually use straw as the base with pine shavings on top.

 

[hensRfun]

I use pine shavings. I had used straw for a couple of years, but I found the straw took a long time to compose when I clean out the coop. With all the scratching the hens do, I find the pine shavings break up into smaller bits that make better compost.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

We use straw in the nest boxes and shavings on the floor. I'd love to use grass hay, but it was over $9 a bale here in Ohio last year... expensive for nesting material.

I find that straw keeps the eggs cleaner than shavings, in my boxes at least--and fewer hens lay on the floor since the nest materials are different than the bedding and there's less confusion. Of course, some of my girls always lay on the floor no matter what.

 

[khannalucas]

We are new to the backyard chicken experience. Our dozen chickens are almost 3 months old. Their night time coop is contained inside a fenced in area, about 3 ft off the ground. There is one roosting post, and four nesting boxes inside. Chickens can also get on top of the inside nesting boxes to roost. The night time coop has a rope light that comes on at dusk, and goes off an hour later. There is about 3 ft of space on top of the night time coop where the chickens go sometimes. We have been using the bale size pine shavings from TSC since they came to us at 1 day old, and change it all every week, inside the coop and on the floor of the coop. For the last week, they all have been spending the night on top of the coop, that is inside the fenced area. Is it the shavings? Could there be mites? The inside has only 3 days of use inside, so isn't very dirty. There was another light inside, but after the first day of sleeping on top, the bulb light was changed to a rope light that takes NO space away at all. Do we have a problem with the chickens on top or there something we need to do differently?

 

[LAYINGCHICKENZ4]

Hay, straw or Woodchips all work well.