Chicken's nest box... function over form (again)

Ken King

Member
Messages
103
Location
Bridgton, Maine
I decided that it was time to make version two of the roll-out nest box I made a couple of years ago, so over the last few days I built it. I don't have many process pictures, but there's nothing fancy to see about it anyway.
It features a slanting floor *about 5 degrees) so the eggs can roll away from the hens. They fall through a .5 inch wide slot in the back and down onto the collection floor, which is also slanted, but toward the front to make egg collection easier. This floor is heated by a thermostatically controlled heater that is housed in the bottom section. I have a real problem with frozen eggs here from about late November to late April of May, so this should help that.
The laying floor and the collection floor have a rubber pad. This is actually huge mouse pads from work. Should be easier to clean than plain rubber pad would be.
 

Attachments

  • nest box.jpg
    nest box.jpg
    122.1 KB · Views: 24
  • nest box2.jpg
    nest box2.jpg
    127.5 KB · Views: 24
Good looking box, Ken. I'm assuming the egg slot is wider than .5 inches? Do you put anything else besides the rubber pads in the boxes? Hadn't seen this system before , but it obviously works and the heating pad keeps the girls comfortable. Nice. (y)
 
Nope, just rubber pads to keep the eggs from breaking. The eggs fall through an opening that is 2.5x12 inches. The heater doesn't do anything for the girls... its only purpose is to keep the eggs from freezing. Here in Maine the winter days and night are sometimes really cold so freezing eggs is a real problem if you can't collect eggs several times a day.
I don't know if anyone else uses this system. I originally built it for the purpose of getting the eggs away from the hens when I had a problem with them eating eggs. The first design worked well for that, but when winter came I learned all about freezing eggs and added a box with a light bulb under it. That worked quite well until the bulb burned out. Once that happened and eggs froze and broke I discovered that it was nearly impossible to clean the nest box so it quickly became a royal mess. The pads in this one will be very easy to clean so that should be another eliminated problem.
 
Not very many at this point. I had eleven last summer, but a fox got 6 of them in one visit! We have three that have come on now, so there are eight hens laying eggs. I will be getting more this spring; I'd like about 8 more.
 
I've had 4 girls for a several years. They stopped laying so picked up another 4 this year. They all seem to be getting along pretty well and I'm now getting about 3-4 eggs a day, from the new girls, lol.

Here's a link to the coop I made my girls. The run has gone through a few upgrades. It now has a corrugated metal roof and is completely enclosed. I got real tired of the tweety birds and rodents eating all the chicken chow. It's now buttoned up tight, and Wile. E. Coyote has yet to figure out a way in.

https://familywoodworking.org/forums/index.php?threads/coop-de-villa.34999/page-4#post-431610
 
Top