Nesting Box Ideas for Your Coop

Phew, your coop is done!

Now, what type of nesting boxes are you going to create for your feathery flock of ladies?

The possibilities are endless!!

To get you started we have a few nesting box ideas for you to peruse, so let’s get started.

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Recycled Items

Kitty Litter Nesting Boxes make lugging those heavy containers of litter out of the store actually worth it. These colorful yellow containers have plenty of room and stack perfectly for a wall of nests your ladies will love!

5 Gallon Bucket Nesting Boxes are easy to make. Cut the top third of the lid out and place a rubber strip on the cut to protect your chickens. Old bike tubes work great for this piece and are free at most bike shops. Secure them to a 2×4 on the wall and fill with nesting material. Egg-cellent!

Re-purposed Furniture

Recycling a dresser or hutch into nesting boxes is a great way to save money, and it looks beautiful! You simply add sides into the drawers to make cubicles for nests. The addition of a ramp makes it egg-ceptionally functional.

Household Items

Milk Crate Nesting Boxes have some advantages in the stacking department. You would still need to secure them to the back wall in case you had some hens fighting over a particular nest and they all came toppling down. You’d also need to cut an opening in the front for the hens to enter and exit the box. The open bottom helps keep the droppings and dust from the eggs, so that is an added plus.

Dishpan Nesting Boxes are an economical choice and easy as pie to install. You can put these on the floor of the coop if you have space, but they’d be better used in a modular shelf system. You could build a shelving unit for these, or secure them into a cube organizer to save space in the coop and make for easy egg collecting!

Shallow tubs are available in most large box stores and Amazon, and they are “Cheep! Cheep!”  You can get these tubs in a variety of colors and set them right on the floor of the coop.

Instant Nests

Pop up Poultry Boxes are egg-xactly what you need if you’re in a pinch to get a nesting box in your coop quickly. These disposable and compostable nesting boxes are durable and the perfect fix to a time crunch.

Booda Domes are another quick fix if you need a nest right away. These spacious domes have ample room for hens and are portable in case you need a nest for free-range hens. The plastic design also allows for sanitizing your nesting box.

We’ve been using large 10 gallon planters as nesting boxes for years. Why? They’re cheap, the tall sides provide privacy for the birds, they’re easy for us to access, and they require zero assembly or hardware.

We lined the wall of our coop with these babies, filled them with shavings, and let the chickens get to work. If your planters are plastic and more lightweight, you may need to find a way to secure them so they don’t tip when the chickens get into them. You can do this easily by propping a wooden box up against them, or screw the back of them to the coop wall.

So have you chosen one of these nesting designs for your coop?

Awesome!

Now on to bringing your chickens home. If you need help with that check out: Raising Chicken for Beginners.

And as always, send us your pictures and tips about nesting boxes. We love to hear from you!

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