Wood vs. Metal Nest Boxes

[Peaches Lee]

Hello all, we are new to this forum, sorry if this topic has been discussed before. We are new to chickens and before we get any, we wish to have the most knowledge possible. We are trying to decide between wood nest boxes or metal. I would like opinions on your experiences with either, the good, bad and ugly and what you would suggest as I want happy chickens. We live in Northern PA.

I was also wondering what you thought of those Excelsor nest pads?

Thank you for your time and knowledge.

 

[Tangeygirl]

I'm very new to this too! I'm curious to see what others have to say. Right now we use two plastic dishpans. They've worked fabulous the past month. The girls don't seem to mind and leave us two fresh eggs every morning

Jaime

 

[Jx2inNC]

All I currently have is a galvanized steel 12-hole nesting box, outside of the coop.
The chickens love it, and many of them spend a lot of the day up there on the perches.
One of the only downsides I can see here is the metal getting colder in the winter, but I've got more straw that I will just fill the boxes to help insulate -- problem solved.

I think it really just depends where you want to place the nesting box.
Many of the chickens will lay about anywhere in just about anything, so I don't think the decision is super critical, if placed in the appropriate area.

 

[southphoenixchick]

We built wooden nesting boxes and I'm pretty happy with them. Our nesting boxes hang on the outside of the coop and my only complaint is that I didn't paint it fast enough and it rained on it. The lid for getting to the eggs warped and we now need to replace it. So if you are going to use wood on the outside of the coop paint it or use roofing material on it to protect the wood. I might even suggest painting the inside I think we will do that when we fix the boxes because I think it'll make it easier to clean if we need to use water.

 

[woodmort]

I have both inside the coop--actually the metal have plastic bottoms--and the birds don't seem to care. Right now the young ones are using the wooden while the older ones still use the metal. Expect when all 40 are laying eggs will be in both. I use straw as nesting material in both. The only problem I've encountered has been with the plastic inserts in the metal boxes falling through. You have to take time when you return them after cleaning. On the other hand, the plastic inserts clean a lot better and easier than the wooden inserts in the wooden boxes. And they will need to be cleaned--birds poop in them and an occasional egg gets broken which messes up the nesting material. I clean out the nest boxes more than the coop itself.