{"id":701,"date":"2015-05-17T07:59:11","date_gmt":"2015-05-17T07:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sustainablelife.spiderstudio.co.uk\/?p=701"},"modified":"2015-05-17T07:59:11","modified_gmt":"2015-05-17T07:59:11","slug":"make-your-own-chicken-nest-boxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/livestock\/make-your-own-chicken-nest-boxes\/","title":{"rendered":"Make your Own Chicken Nest Boxes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s easy to make your own chicken nest boxes out of almost anything. If you have a place that&#8217;s sheltered from wind and rain for your chickens, like a roofed run or polytunnel then you don&#8217;t need to spend a fortune on nest boxes or hutches. Assuming you already have a hutch where the hcickens will sleep, you can pop nest boxes anywhere off the ground and almost any box type object will do. If you have a broody hen, you can suddenly find yourself without the use of a selection of nest boxes and a hutch and these extra nest boxes may be just what you need in a hurry.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>What makes a good nest box?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>dark<\/li>\n<li>no breezey gaps &#8211; fully sheltered from the wind (unless you don&#8217;t want any broodies but we like to encourage ours to go broody)<\/li>\n<li>non slippy surface Or straw for grip if it is\u00a0 a bit slippy<\/li>\n<li>Removable top so you can extract broody hens if you need to relocate them.<\/li>\n<li>Easy access for the chickens and for you when you collect eggs<\/li>\n<li>Dry\/waterproof<\/li>\n<li>Big enough for your chickens but small enough to be &#8220;safe&#8221; feeling. Bantams require very little space, but medium and large fowl will need at least 25cm high and as wide\/long as possible. Larger is better because it will be too late to change the nest box if you find your chickens are a bit awkward trying to get in and out.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Wooden Boxes<\/strong><br \/>\nCan be costly or require specific and accurate tools to construct properly. Wood may be purchased or salvaged but salvaged wood will be harder to turn into nest boxes.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Metal Buckets<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Can be costly if purchased. Will require stableising on the bottom. Metal can get too hot or too cold with british weather.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Plastic Tubs<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Can be costly depeding on wher eyou shop. Can be easily salvaged from skips and require little modification. Can be too bright &#8211; will need a coat of paint.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>My Nest Boxes<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I chose plastic tubs from the shop for my nest boxes. I measured up the space I had on the top of the main hutch and got appropriately sized tubs for \u00a35 each. Then I cut a hole in the front of the the tub (one of the shortest sides) big enough so a chicken could comfortably get through (I have large fowl so this required some testing). Then painted the outside to block light coming in and let it dry. Add a bit of straw, place somewhere sheltered and viola, chickens are very happy with thier new choice of nest boxes.<\/p>\n<p>If they look a bit confused, pop an egg into each one and sit the chickens next to the boxes so they can see. They will soon work it out!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/suslife.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/17695_10153270331221774_2302415804911877763_n1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-702\" alt=\"17695_10153270331221774_2302415804911877763_n\" src=\"http:\/\/suslife.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/17695_10153270331221774_2302415804911877763_n1.jpg\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/suslife.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/10404328_10153270000791774_3301077503430105149_n1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-703\" alt=\"10404328_10153270000791774_3301077503430105149_n\" src=\"http:\/\/suslife.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/10404328_10153270000791774_3301077503430105149_n1.jpg\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/suslife.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/11229768_10153270000826774_8898548678479736646_n1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-704\" alt=\"11229768_10153270000826774_8898548678479736646_n\" src=\"http:\/\/suslife.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/11229768_10153270000826774_8898548678479736646_n1.jpg\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/suslife.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/11249237_10153272418471774_7145137016403489365_n1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-705\" alt=\"11249237_10153272418471774_7145137016403489365_n\" src=\"http:\/\/suslife.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/11249237_10153272418471774_7145137016403489365_n1.jpg\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s easy to make your own chicken nest boxes out of almost anything. If you have a place that&#8217;s sheltered from wind and rain for your chickens, like a roofed run or polytunnel then you don&#8217;t need to spend a fortune on nest boxes or hutches. Assuming you already have a hutch where the hcickens &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/livestock\/make-your-own-chicken-nest-boxes\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Make your Own Chicken Nest Boxes<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-livestock","category-upcycle"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablelifebirmingham.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}