New Chicken Nesting Boxes...FINALLY!

It's been time for some new nesting boxes for awhile.  Here is a picture of our old, kitchen cabinets that served as nesting boxes for the past ten years.  As you can see, they have seen better days.  Twice a year, in the fall and spring, we remove the nesting boxes to give them a good bleaching.  Over the years, the wood has begun to rot and fall apart.  So, I got on the internet to see what I could find in the form of durable nesting boxes.

Using 5 gallon buckets left over from all kinds of products we purchase on a regular basis, I began by drilling holes all over the top portion of the buckets for ventilation.  Then, I purchased some lids from www.fowlstuff.com.  These lids are pretty nifty.  I purchased four of them to get me started.

 

However, with over 80 chickens that live here on our property, four nesting boxes are just not going to cut it.  So, I began checking out how I could make some of these for myself.  Obviously, they aren't going to be as "pretty", but should serve the purpose.  I'm in the process of collecting my horse's CW Wormer buckets around the barn. I've found three.  I think these are going to work even better since they are rectangle.  More pictures will be forthcoming on those.  My friend from church, Larry Mills, heard about my little project and informed me that he knows a lady who works at a Smoothie Factory and throws these types of buckets away regularly.  Bonus!  Ten more buckets are heading my way!  The buckets are attached to 2" x 4" boards and placed on the wall with brackets.  The buckets simply slide off of the wall for cleaning.  Brilliant!  Again, thank you FowlStuff for the idea.

 Here, the two of the hens are checking out the new buckets. They are trying to figure out what happened to the old cabinets they used to lay their eggs in.  Hey!  They must have forgotten it is bulk trash pickup this week.  Perfect!

 In addition to our new nesting boxes, we have a new addition of Guinea keets.  My daughter's friend, Shelby, called to let us know her grandfather had hatched out a bunch for the fun of it and didn't want to keep all of the chicks.  So, we were more than happy to take them off of his hands.  We now have nine Guineas.

 I also purchased five chicks from a local feed store (that's a long story...don't even begin to go there).  After a 30 minute time period in the back yard (chicks were left alone) while I went to pick up my youngest at school, four of the five chicks were found dead in the pen.  I'm pretty sure one of our mama hens was the culprit on that one.  So, the remaining one chick is in the chick coup with the Guineas.  They are getting along great!

Whew!  I'm tired, but excited!  We have a lot more eggs in the incubator (thanks to Logan West for encouraging me to give it another try this year) that are due out in a couple of weeks AND are on cria watch (baby alpaca) for Dolly, who is due at the end of the month.  Ah!  This is the life for me!!