One gentleman at the Tractor
Supply Animal Swap
was selling these stand-alone nest boxes for $25 apiece. We would
have gotten one, since our chickens currently lay in a milk crate
sitting on the floor of the coop, but we couldn’t fit it into our car
along with our
new hens.
Having a designated nest
box can make eggs cleaner, and might even help a hen go
broody. In a
perfect world, you want one nest box for every five hens, although I’ve
noticed that our girls all like to use the same spot even though
there’s closer to a dozen of them and they have other options.
Any dark, enclosed space
about 15 inches by 15 inches by 12 inches will work. Just add a
lip to the front, fill the nest box up with straw, and your hens will
mash down the bedding into a cupped shape. If you notice manure
in the nest, you can block the box off at night so chickens aren’t
tempted to sleep there.
I’m holding out for a fancy
new coop with an
external nest box, so we probably won’t upgrade our nesting arrangement
right away. But if we don’t put the new coop on the list before
spring, we may go ahead and cobble together a better nesting
arrangement, hoping to tempt one of our hens to set.
broody hen’s nest so she doesn’t have to leave her eggs to get a drink.
