New Nest Box

Broody can be a pain.

Broody is when a hen has a persistent urge to sit on eggs to nurture them to young chicks. We don't have a rooster. So we really need to collect eggs. When you don't get them in time, or they are allowed to collect, the risk of an egg cracking is high.

The first time an egg cracked, it wasn't too bad. The yolk didn't break and most of the egg stayed in the shell. The 3rd time was terrible. I had to pull out the nest box to remove the bottom. I had to leave for work so the quickest thing was to cut out some cardboard, staple it to the bottom, put in straw, then back in the coop.

The biggest advantage is the modular design that allows me to pull out one box for maintenance and leave others in for them. Well, one other.

I was able to get a new box built this weekend. It's a double nest box. I added 6 inches to the width and then divided it. I found a nice piece of plywood at my local box hardware store in the scrap pile. It was awesome! 2'x4'x1/2" at 70% off! Making it a nice $8.

Then I proceeded to cut my pieces to fit into the space. The width of the boxes drop down from about 11" to 9", since I've seen 2 of them in there for some tandem laying, a 2" drop should be doable.

I got to use my Japanese handsaw to cut off a little bit of the divider.

Then I added some extra vinyl tiles for the bottom, in the event of another cracked-egg mishap.

There wasn't enough plywood left for the walls, but that's okay, I had extra 1.5"x.5" for supports and more cardboard. Voila! A little double nestbox for under $10.

No one went in until I put a wooden egg in each one. And on the first day, 2 eggs were laid in it. Yay! The previous nest box was removed for maintenance.

For now, they seem to prefer one side over the other, but they do have a choice. And Penny can continue to be broody on the other side. (She's sitting on a wooden egg.)