Your main concern as a chicken keeper is to have your chickens’ basic needs provided for. This
includes fitting up your nesting boxes with the essentials and other nest box supplies so your chickens know they have a safe space where they can lay eggs and shelter their young.
Having a warm, dry, and comfortable chicken nesting box is non-negotiable if you want your birds to thrive. Alongside that, your chicken coop should ideally include excellent ventilation and adequate perches in roosting areas.
Then again, you can go ahead with add-ons such as quality nesting pads and handy poop trays, or you can run wild with specialized chicken keepers’ aprons and automatic door openers—whatever makes you and your chickens happy.
That said, below are some essentials to have in mind when planning on creating a safe haven for your precious flock of birds.
Why Do You Need a Chicken Nesting Box?
Hens will instinctively seek for a secure and secluded place to lay their eggs. The reason behind this is simple—it’s an instinctive mechanism that drives chickens to secure their offspring from predators and other threats.
By providing your hens with an adequate nesting box you’re doing this job on their behalf—and chances are your egg-laying hens will be happy with the job done if you make your nesting boxes warm, dry, and comfy.
Importantly, in the absence of a safe nesting area, your birds might start showing a host of unfavorable behaviors included but not limited to:
- Stowing their eggs away randomly all over the yard
- Eating their eggs
- Displaying nervous behaviors like poor appetite, dull appearance, and missing feathers
- Showing a decrease in egg production
To avoid such scenarios, provide your backyard fowl with an adequate number of nesting boxes. The general rule of thumb is to provide one box for every 2-4 hens. For more detailed information check the table below.
What Makes a Good Nesting Box?
As mentioned, a good nesting box provides a warm, dry, and secure place for your feathered friends to nest their eggs in. But there’s more to it. Sometimes it will take time for your hens to get used to a nesting box.
Making your nesting boxes up to scratch will support this transition. It will also help you get around problems such as having your birds refusing to use a nesting box or hiding their eggs around the run.
Below are points to consider when building your poultry nest boxes:
- Accessibility. Ideally, a nesting box should be elevated (1-3 feet off of the ground) with a comfortable ramp leading up to it.
- Placement. Nesting boxes are intended, well… for nesting and laying eggs—so you might as well keep it that way. It makes sense thus, to place your nesting boxes away from the popular congregating places like roosting and feeding areas. Also, the recommended area to place your nesting boxes in is the chicken coop, not the run.
- Comfort levels. Your hens will feel comfortable in a nesting box area if it’s well ventilated if it’s secluded and has low noise levels. Also, it would help to have a nest box area that’s waterproof and that doesn’t receive direct sunlight.
The Essential Chicken Coop Accessories
Nesting Pads
Equipping your nesting box with the essential nest box accessories is equally as important as getting your nesting box design right. In other words, you might want to furnish your nesting box with good-quality nesting pads.
Going for synthetic materials for your nesting box (like kennel liners, rubber mats, or faux turf pads) may be off-putting for your birds and may discourage them from using it. Instead, your chickens will be happier with more natural nest box bedding materials like straw and wood shavings. Plus, they’d appreciate some padding too. Enter good nesting pads.
Good nesting pads bring in a variety of benefits for both you and your feathered friends.
- Easier egg gathering. Nesting pads provide the right padding and support for chicken eggs, making them easier to collect.
- Better hygiene. They provide hygienic conditions for your hens when they’re laying and incubating. The right density of wood shavings allows for the chicken droppings to fall to the paper below leaving the area in which the eggs are laid dry.
- Cleaner eggs. Nesting pads allow you to get cleaner fresh eggs for collecting. This lowers the risks of your eggs getting contaminated with harmful bacteria like Salmonella and Campylobacter.
Need some nesting pads for your coop? Our nesting pads are designed for healthy chicken rearing as they’re made from fine natural aspen wood shavings.
Chicken Waterers
A chicken waterer is one of the most essential chicken coop accessories. To make sure your chickens are laying well it’s not enough to make them happy and comfortable—you should also make sure they’re well hydrated.
Many chicken farmers swear by nipple waterers, so when choosing a waterer for your chicken coop, consider getting one of these. Nipple waterers, like our Chicken Coop Company waterer, are super hygienic while also convenient for watering your birds in the colder months. They:
- Come with a sealed container and are positioned off the ground, so that the water in the piping remains clean and there are fewer chances of spillages and turing your coop into a muddy mess.
- Are equipped with freeze-proof nipples so you’re able to provide your hens with drinkable water all year round.
- Come in a variety of sizes (from 1.25 to 2 gallons), removing the need for constant refilling.
Poop Trays
Poop trays aren’t that uncommon anymore and given that they allow for a much quicker cleanup, it’s also questionable if they can be considered luxury any longer. Not to mention that they’re quintessential for warding off all sorts of illnesses by helping you up your chicken coop hygiene levels.
Keeping your hen house in immaculate order is second to none if you want to keep your chickens free from infection. Take red mites for example. Alongside quarantining your birds and treating your nesting boxes with Diatomaceous Earth powder, cleaning your hen house is central for avoiding a build-up of dander in the cracks and crevices of your coop which can lead to red mite infection.
Poop trays can help keep your coop hygiene levels high reflecting on the better health of your chickens. By allowing for the waste to be more easily collected, chicken poop trays minimize the risk of bacteria and parasites spreading among your flock. We can’t stress this enough—they also simplify the cleaning process for you (when localized in several easy-to-manage plates, chicken waste is easier to clean).
Automatic Door Openers
A chicken coop automatic door opener might not be as quintessential as the chicken coop accessories listed above, but the fact is that it can save you time. Taking extra time to close the coop in the evening can be distressing especially if doing it after a long day of performing other farm-related tasks.
An automatic door opener also frees up your busy mornings from extra coop opening tasks. Different presets are available, but the "dusk to dawn" preset is a no-brainer as it closes and releases your chickens when the sun rises and sets.
Aside from freeing up some time from your otherwise time-consuming farming work, automatic door openers bring huge safety benefits. By being locked in at the appropriate times, your chickens will feel secure from predators, which leaves their egg production uninterrupted.
Doing the Chicken Nesting Box Business Right
In retrospect, your number one task as a chicken keeper is to make your chickens safe, happy, and healthy (especially those mature enough to start nesting and laying eggs—as these are the most vulnerable).
And it’s simple. Make your hen house up to scratch hygiene-wise and health-wize, strategize with your nesting box positioning and construction, and install a few essential chicken coop accessories.
Want to jazz it up in the nest box accessories department? The Chicken Coop Company egg aprons will help you hit the sweet spot between stylish and practical when collecting your eggs. Yet, chicken coops are at the heart of what we do.
Backed up with years of experience in chicken keeping we’ve seen what works and what doesn't—plus, we also made sure to take our customers’ feedback. That’s why our nesting boxes are supported with extra battens for sturdier construction. To boot, our nesting box panels and roofing are waterproof—pretty much all you need to keep your laying hens dry.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how we do things differently from others. Read our product whitepaper to find out more.
