Homestead Education Channel is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission at no additional cost to you.
As a homesteader with land, when you’re ready to move towards a more sustainable farm and increased food security, you might choose to start raising poultry. Chickens are a reliable source of meat and eggs, and are fairly inexpensive to purchase, raise, and feed. They are also relatively simple to process for consumption. Raising chickens is a good starting point if you plan to grow your homestead and raise other food animals.There are many hearty egg-laying breeds of chickens, and some uniquely pretty and fun variations to choose from.
There are some issues to consider when you decide to raise poultry. Chickens, being small, are a tempting snack for all manner of critters, from hawks to skunks. If you’re serious about protecting your flock, you should consider having a rooster for protection and to sound the alarm, and have a chicken house or “coop” of some kind for them to roost in at night. This coop should have a secure fenced- in location or “run” to keep your chickens safe which also provides a central location for nest boxes for the hens to deposit their eggs.
If you decide to let your chickens roam and have free-range on your property, you should still plan to have a safe and secure home for them to roost in at night, equipped with plenty of nest boxes. That is, unless you want to have an “egg hunt” daily!
If given freedom of choice, most hens will lay their eggs in a dark, secluded spot where they will have some privacy and where their eggs are not vulnerable to predators. If they are confined to a run with a coop, they will generally lay their eggs in a nest box provided for this purpose. You will also find that multiple hens will use the same nest on the same day. Free-range hens will often abandon a nest and find another hidden spot to lay eggs if their eggs have been retrieved too many times from the same location.
There are a lot of options for housing your hens. You can be as basic or elaborate as you
want to be. You can go as fancy as purchasing a $1,400 chicken coop with nest boxes
that are accessible from the outside, like this one from chickencoopcompany.com
You may be inclined to build one on your own. It doesn’t take a lot of carpentry experience to put together some perfectly serviceable chicken nest boxes.With a little imagination and creativity, you can repurpose items that will serve the same purpose. There should be at least one nest box for every 4-5 hens in your flock
Boxes
Chickens need a place that’s large enough for them to sit comfortably, with sides or dividers high enough to create a barrier between them and the boxes next to them. They should be easily accessible for you to see and reach the eggs, as well as cleaning and changing the bedding materials regularly. Boxes can be everything from cut down 5 gallon buckets laid on their sides, wooden fruit boxes, or one single shelf that has dividers to make a three-sided box. Some people use baskets, but we don’t recommend them because of hygiene issues with cleaning. Anything you set up for chickens will get manure on it, and needs to be easy to clean and re-bed with straw, hay, or other bedding material.
Roll Down
One design that is commonly used is the roll-down, or slanted nest box where the floor of the box is slanted so that the egg rolls down into a tray for retrieval. This eliminates the need to put your hands under the hen to get the eggs and lets you avoid getting pecked! For DIYers, you can use a piece of vinyl rain gutter, or PVC pipe that’s been cut lengthwise for your catch tray. Simply put a block of wood under the outside top edge of the nest box and attach the tray at the bottom edge.Note: If you use hay or straw, the hens sometimes will make a round nest to lay eggs in and that will cause a dam that won’t allow the egg to roll out. So make sure you keep track of this issue to keep your roll down nest box in working order.
You can purchase a roll down nest box that has artificial turf in the bottom, and a hinged tray lid like this one for around $300 on Amazon.
Shelves
Repurposing shelving is probably one of the least costly and most convenient ways to set up your chicken house with nesting boxes for the hens. Simply measure the length and width that you need. Screw in some brackets and mount them to the wall, making sure they are level. You can either add dividers or leave them open. You can add a lip with a piece of baseboard across the front so that the eggs don’t roll off if you like. With multiple stacked shelves you can add vertical dividers for additional privacy.
Repurposed Items
You can make your chicken house or nest boxes out of anything you want to repurpose. Chests of drawers, old horse trailers, even old cars.
The main thing to remember is easy access and exits for the chickens, and security from predators. You also have to be able to clean out your chicken coop and your nest boxes regularly to re-bed them with fresh bedding. The last thing you want is poopy eggs! I find that my free-range chickens will start laying in the nesting boxes as soon as I clean out and re-bed them with fresh hay. After a little while they go looking for other spots to lay their eggs in. I clean and refresh their boxes and usually within a couple of days, multiple hens are using the boxes again.
I’m not sure how the car “coupe” actually works, but I give it lots of points for creativity! I’m guessing the doors open and close.
These folks repurposed an old child’s playhouse into a chicken coop.
Roosts
Just a reminder to add roosts to your chicken house in addition to nest boxes. You can use any kind of stick, branch, dowel or broom handle. Secure them on each end and make sure they are not too close to the ceiling and that they sit level and your chickens can sit on them comfortably. Chickens prefer to roost up high (away from predators on the ground) when possible. They will cuddle side by side through the night. Some will opt to rest in the nest boxes especially on colder nights where they can settle down into the bedding for added warmth. They may crowd in together in twos or threes in the same box.
When it comes to accommodations for your hens, you’re truly only limited by your imagination! So, if you love repurposing old pieces of furniture found in thrift or junk shops, you could have a lot of fun designing your chicken house and nest boxes. I love the repurposed dresser idea, and there are a ton to choose from like this one from the owner builder network.
Bedding
Bedding is a matter of personal preference. You can buy imitation grass mats that are washable to fit inside your nest boxes, or use grass, hay, or straw. Most folks prefer organic materials that they can compost along with the chicken manure for garden use later on. In my experience, the hens seem to prefer hay to any other type of bedding in the nest boxes. They eat it and make their nests cozy with it. Cedar shavings and peat moss are also used for chicken bedding. You just need to make sure that you don’t use anything toxic such as plastic or mylar. The chickens will surely ingest some of whatever you use for their nests, so you need to be aware of that.
The truth of the matter is, you can thrift and repurpose all manner of furniture, sheds or other objects for your chicken nest boxes. You can spend as little or as much money as you like. The most important thing is to provide a safe, secure and comfortable nest box for your hens to lay in, however that looks to you.
Here at http://homesteadeducationchannel.com/, we are dedicated to helping you find resources, education, and information regarding all aspects of the homesteading lifestyle.
Photos courtesy of Pexels and the respective owners.
