NICE NEST FOR (NEARLY) NOTHING
(Page 2 of 2)
Once the hole's diameter is well covered, all of the flaps
on the interior and exterior of the container should be
glued or taped in place. The idea, of course, is to smooth
all the box's surfaces so much that there'll be no "peckin'
edges" left anywhere on the container.
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Hens like a "step" in front of their nests, so I try to
stack my cartons so that they present a staircase of
however many levels I need. Most chickens seem perfectly
satisfied with a two-layer structure . . . if the bottom
nests are set on something that keeps them six inches or so
off the ground.
My Leghorns, however, like their beds higher. In fact, when
I tried to get them to accept the usual low nests, they
responded by eating any eggs they found in them. As a
result, the Leghorns now have a separate "apartment" on a
shelf above the rest of the hens' "rooms".
I bed my boxes with barley straw—just because it's
the only thing I have at hand—but it does wear out
quickly, and has to be changed regularly.
Nest maintenance couldn't be easier, though. I've never had
a set (even under a leaky roof) last less than a year. At
that point they should be sterilized Oust burn 'em up and
build new ones) anyway.
All in all, I've found my "egg boxes" to be very
worthwhile. They're cheap, the hens like them, and they
provide me with a flexibility that the store-bought metal
products just can't match. For instance, I had one old
biddy that would not lay her eggs anywhere but on top of
the boxes, only to have the potential omelets fall to the
floor and break. It took me three tries to modify a
cardboard box into an enclosure that she'd use . .
. and the solution turned out to be a "tunnel", with holes
on both sides.
She and I would have been flat out of luck if our only
choice had been a wall full of galvanized commercial nests,
wouldn't we?
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