Nestbox Instructions from BYC

[baymule]

This is the best instructions for building a roll out nest box that I have ever seen. Why a roll out nest box you ask? Because a hen lays an egg, it hits a little hard and cracks open. Don't try to humanize a hen, she doesn't look at the cracked egg and BA-GAWK, screaming in hen language, MY BABY!! Nope. She sees that cracked egg as food. Yep, she will eat it. She finds out that eggs taste pretty darn good and an egg eater has just scarfed down the egg you thought you were going to eat. Not only that, but she will teach the other hens to eat eggs too. Unless you have your hand extended under her butt when she plops the egg out, to snatch it away from her, you ain't getting any eggs!

I built my nest box before I ever saw this, but my girls rejected it anyway and lay on the poop board under their roost. They are going to get a coop remodel real soon and a nestbox overhaul.

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/287684/new-rollout-nest-design-picture-heavy-edited-1-21

 

[so lucky]

A roll out nestbox may become a necessity for me. Today I finally got an unbroken egg from Scarlet, the first in about a week. She lays such thin-shelled eggs, they get broken very often in the nest. I think it is just because the other three are kinda clumsy. Also, Scarlet often lays her egg from the roost. When it falls, it breaks. I haven't seen any of the girls eating the eggs. There is usually a big mess. Lately I have been going to check the nest more frequently, to try to get her egg as soon as it is laid, before the other girls get in there. I have also considered taking the roost down during the day, in case she is getting back up on the roost during the daytime to lay her egg. And yes, I have increased the calcium available, and have started mixing in crushed egg shells in with their table scraps.
She is too bony for a chicken dinner. Maybe broth.

 

[bj taylor]

I've got a hen that lays standing up. she's so funny to watch because you can almost see her expression of concentration & effort, then it pops out of her & cracks on the floor of the nest. it remains intact so no egg eating at this point. the idea of a roll out is great.