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Super easy nest box
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Posted by bruglover Gulf States (My Page) on Mon, Mar 13, 06 at 13:56
| Problem here is finding the time to build things. Adult chicken flock of 6 needed nest boxes. We were getting tired of reaching through the pen with a "grabber" and battling the mean old roo.
Those big plastic lidded bins work great, usually they're blue or gray. I cut a hen-sized hole in the large side, starting about two inches from the bottom. Used a Sawzall with a metal blade. A hand saw with fine teeth would probably have worked. Craft scissors weren't strong enough. Maybe tinsnips?
I cut a hole in the chicken pen to correspond with the bin hole, and attached the bin to the outside of the pen by bending the pen wire in through the bin hole. Put a nice pile of straw inside and a couple bricks on top, just in case it got super windy.
Very convenient. Lift the lid, gather the eggs. If your roo is aggressive like ours, use a piece of cardboard or something to slip over the entrance hole to keep him out of the box while you're gathering the eggs.
This is probably not very predator-proof, but we don't have that problem here. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Super easy nest box
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*APPLAUSE!* A truly clever design! Because the lids snap on tight there shouldn't be a problem with predators and especially so since you'll have collected the eggs by nightfall when most egg-eaters would be prowling around. And when you get the opportunity perhaps you can contrive some sort of wood framing around it or some other way to secure them from wind, that way you won't have to keep removing & replacing bricks every time you need to access the inside. Having them on the outside of the pen also means that your birds have more real estate in their pen to scratch & peck & poop. You may also want to secure any sharp edges of the wire fencing inside the boxes with duct tape so a hen won't injure herself. A few drain holes could be drilled on the bottom in case rain gets in, also so you can hose them out periodically.
Thank you for sharing, I will use your design for my next chicken pen! |
RE: Super easy nest box
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| DH picked up an old dresser tossed to the curb. Pulled out the drawers, cut the legs off. Mounted it on the barn wall. Put in wood partitions where the drawers were. One dresser now has 6 nesting boxes. Put in fresh hay, and viola, hens wait in line to take their turn. Now we're looking for discarded dresser #2!!! - Ellen |
RE: Super easy nest box
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| Great ideas! I have a row of six lockers from the elementary school I attended 30 years ago. I've set it up horizontally with the doors opening down. Need a recipe for the dangerous rooster? |
RE: Super easy nest box
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| Oh, that roo! We like having him because he's gorgeous, huge and irridescent black with gold saddle and hackle feathers, and once a year one hen gets broody and raises some chicks. Now if he tries to attack, I grab him around the neck with that grabber and let him struggle. After a minute or so, he gets tired and sits down. I hold him there for a while. After one of those sessions, he'll ignore me for a week or more. |
RE: Super easy nest box
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| Recipe for dealing with an aggressive rooster: carry around a large rectangle of chicken wire and walk with it around you into the pen. Worked like a CHARM whenever I went into the neighbors pen to play with the chickens. |
RE: Super easy nest box
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| plastic milk crates work great |
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