Nesting Boxes

While shopping at Easter this spring, my husband talked me in to buying some baby chicks. I am not a chicken person, especially roosters. But the thought of raising our own eggs and having garden fertilizer appealed to me. So we got 6 hens and a rooster. We had an old chicken coop on the farm, however the nesting boxes were not in it. After looking at how much they cost (approximately $25 and up depending on how elaborate you want to get) I decided to put my shop skills to use and make my own. I looked at a few different plans online and decided on this one because of the low cost and we had the materials on hand.

Materials:

5 gallon bucket with snap on lid

Drill

Utility knife

Drywall screws

2x4’s

2x6’s

Directions:

I used a bucket that contained drywall plaster; it’s a little shorter than a regular 5 gallon bucket and they fit in our coop better. It was clean and had a good fitting lid. I removed the handle and lid first. I then cut one lid so approximately 1/3 remained and the other so ¼ remained. They seem to favor the one with the ¼ lid, although they use both. Snap the lid back on the bucket. The rest of the directions will depend on your chicken coop set up. You can see from my picture how I assembled the boxes. I used a piece of 2x6 to screw the back of the buckets to and stabilize against the wall. I also used a piece of 2x6 under the front part of the buckets to brace them. I used 2 pieces of 2x4 that were 22 inches long to raise the boxes off the floor. I did not include a roost in front of the buckets, although that could easily be done as well. Our chickens had no problem jumping up into the boxes. When they first started laying eggs, they were doing so on the ground, so we placed an additional bucket on the ground for them to lay in and they eventually started laying in the raised boxes.