Today I worked to install a new nest box for a few hens that I recently acquired.
I didn't take pictures of the nest box as it was being put together, but hopefully the pictures will give you and idea of how it was done. We spend ZERO dollars on it. You can do something very similar with whatever you already have around the house. Please make sure it is securely attached to the wall so it doesn't topple over with your chickens in or on it.
We used a cat litter tub for the nest box. There are boards on either side of the box to screw the box to so that it doesn't move side to side.
There's a perch of sorts on the front of the box to make it a little easier for the girls to get in the box.
There's a board attaching the side legs together to make them more stable.
There nest box has been screwed to a wall stud so that it doesn't topple over when they get up on it.
It was a very quick, easy project and my husband was able to complete it in probably an hour or so including brainstorming and locating materials.
The chickens that the nest box is for are Easter Eggers and they are older girls so I didn't expect to get many eggs from them. To my surprise, one of the girls (I don't know which) laid a gorgeous mint green egg only 3 days after being moved to her new home. She laid every other day for a week and then stopped altogether. It's now been about a month and she's laid no more eggs.
So, now we are going through a list of troubleshooting to find out what has made her unhappy enough to stop laying and why the other 3 haven't started. The nest boxes in this coop are on the floor, so my husband build an easy nest box and stand to get it up off the floor. I took the box and stand to their coop today and screwed it securely to the wall, filled it with nice clean pine shavings and hopefully, soon, we'll be collecting colored eggs from these girls. If not, we'll be on to the next thing on the list.
Come spring, we will hopefully be hatching out some colored eggs in hopes of replacing these older ladies with some younger girls that will lay regularly. My boys really enjoy the colored eggs and, even though they don't taste any different, they are so pretty mixed in with the brown, tan, and white eggs that we collect now.
Once we get things finished and settled, we will have one coop with all shades of brown and white layers and one coop for all our colored egg layers and then our duck coop, but we don't have any idea right now what colors they will lay.
It's an exciting adventure for sure. There's always something new going on and we are always working to change, improve, upgrade, repair, or replace something, or build something new entirely. I'm really excited for spring to come to see what we can get ourselves into then!
I didn't take pictures of the nest box as it was being put together, but hopefully the pictures will give you and idea of how it was done. We spend ZERO dollars on it. You can do something very similar with whatever you already have around the house. Please make sure it is securely attached to the wall so it doesn't topple over with your chickens in or on it.
Top view of our DIY nest box and stand
Front view of our DIY nest box and stand
We used a cat litter tub for the nest box. There are boards on either side of the box to screw the box to so that it doesn't move side to side.
There's a perch of sorts on the front of the box to make it a little easier for the girls to get in the box.
There's a board attaching the side legs together to make them more stable.
There nest box has been screwed to a wall stud so that it doesn't topple over when they get up on it.
It was a very quick, easy project and my husband was able to complete it in probably an hour or so including brainstorming and locating materials.
The chickens that the nest box is for are Easter Eggers and they are older girls so I didn't expect to get many eggs from them. To my surprise, one of the girls (I don't know which) laid a gorgeous mint green egg only 3 days after being moved to her new home. She laid every other day for a week and then stopped altogether. It's now been about a month and she's laid no more eggs.
Our Easter Egger ladies
So, now we are going through a list of troubleshooting to find out what has made her unhappy enough to stop laying and why the other 3 haven't started. The nest boxes in this coop are on the floor, so my husband build an easy nest box and stand to get it up off the floor. I took the box and stand to their coop today and screwed it securely to the wall, filled it with nice clean pine shavings and hopefully, soon, we'll be collecting colored eggs from these girls. If not, we'll be on to the next thing on the list.
Our Ameraucana Rooster "Fred". The Easter Eggers are his ladies.
Come spring, we will hopefully be hatching out some colored eggs in hopes of replacing these older ladies with some younger girls that will lay regularly. My boys really enjoy the colored eggs and, even though they don't taste any different, they are so pretty mixed in with the brown, tan, and white eggs that we collect now.
Once we get things finished and settled, we will have one coop with all shades of brown and white layers and one coop for all our colored egg layers and then our duck coop, but we don't have any idea right now what colors they will lay.
It's an exciting adventure for sure. There's always something new going on and we are always working to change, improve, upgrade, repair, or replace something, or build something new entirely. I'm really excited for spring to come to see what we can get ourselves into then!
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