what do you use in your nest boxes?

[mudpaw]

After finding my silkie sleeping (and pooping...a lot) in my nest boxes, I figure I need to put some different kind of bedding in the nest boxes (since apparently she doesn't get the difference). I've heard straw can be bad (mites and such-though does frequent clean out help with that?)...but I know some people do use it. Right now I have pine shaving in there just like the rest of my coop. So, what do you use?

 

[joedie]

I used to use pine shavings then switched to straw but also became concerned about mites, so now I use hay.

 

[SurprisingWoman]

I have a piece of waffle foam and the same bedding as in the coop. They don't sleep in there so it's working.

 

[One Acre Wonder Farm]

I use hay. The girls can "shape" it to make a little nest, it is easy to clean/replace and hard to kick out of the nesting box. I tried using pine shavings for a while, but they seemed to stick to the eggs, the girls kicked the shavings out and it seemed like I needed a lot of them to make a cushy landing spot for the eggs.

 

[Sweet Violet]

Hi there, I use pine shavings and love it. The girls still scooch it around to make the nests to their liking and I find it super easy to clean out the poop.

 

[Chieftain]

I use pine shavings in the coop for litter, and timothy hay for the nest boxes. I get the hay in small bales at the petstore, and one bale will fill both of my boxes about 3 times.

 

[redstars]

I use pine shavings also.
Same as in the coop.

 

[Opa]

I use plastic nest pads

 

[New2Peeps]

I used pine shavings for over a year, but had an extra bale of straw left from seeding my lawn and so I tried that in the nest box and they really seem to prefer it over the shavings---they really get in there and make themselves a nice cozy nest out of it and so far no problems at all with mites or cleaning. They actually used to try to sleep in the pine shavings but have left the straw nests for egglaying only.

 

[Kittymomma]

I use pine shavins in most of the boxes, but have hay in two of them because a few of the girls seem to prefer it. I like the shaving because it's easy to scoop the occasional mess out without having to change the whole thing. I've got to be careful though, a couple of my girls like to bury their eggs in the shavings so they're easy to miss if I'm not paying attention.