Does color matter for nesting boxes and liners?

[ChirpyChicks1]

A business who went around accepting returns with no barcodes would be a silly business

 

[beeksnfeet]

Why not buy 1 more with a SKU on it in the red color. Then take them all back and ask them if you could exchange for a different color, or in store credit. It is not illegal and you are not cheating anyone. You would have 1 proving they were bought in that store. Do you have the sales slip? Some places will accept just that. They could pull the tray from the shelf to verify the SKU on the product to the slip.. Worked retail many years ago. The store where I worked would have accepted them. Just a thought.

 

[valleychicks]

No I don't have the receipt. I will just get some in a different color and use the red ones for something else. Thanks!

 

[henless]

No I don't have the receipt. I will just get some in a different color and use the red ones for something else. Thanks!

You can always try them and see how it goes.

 

[Ravennest]

My girls preferred yellow...I think it goes good with their brown eggs

....the fact that they happen to nesting on my neon yellow mud boots is another matter. They are heavy rubber and when the egg drops it doesn't break...I have watched them do this a lot of times its funny the egg just rolls into place.

I moved the pair with the eggs into the nesting box and now TuTu is happy but Speckle is not. TuTu has been going into broody mode. Speckle and her have been 'arguing' a lot after breakfast as to if she should be sitting or out in the yard. Speckle will ' whine' for quite a while to get TuTu off and into the yard. TuTu will drop her head as she passes Speck when Speck goes to peck her. Then she will follow them out.

Now they don't bug me to go out with them as much in the mornings . Or throughout the day as much anymore.
This also goes along with them going back and forth as to which one of them is alpha hen. At one point they acted like they ' expected' me to be sitting. Apparently, I have gone from roo to hen in a few weeks around the time of their egg laying started.

Is it the alpha that broods the nest or a lesser hen? TuTu's eating habits have changed she stuffs herself at breakfast...anything and everything and then will go sit. Don (roo) along with Speckle will 'bug' her til she gets out of nesting and into the yard. Speckle's call is a long drawn out ' whine ' and it is more annoying than any crow. Its almost like a growl but there's a higher pitch to it. This will go on for quite some time. Or til we give in and give up and TuTu goes outside.

 

[10whiskers]

I'

After seeing that some people use plastic dish pans in their nesting boxes I purchase 6 in red to use when my chicks get older and start laying. My son-in-law saw the dish pans and said that he heard you shouldn't use anything red because chickens will want to eat or peck the eggs. Is this true? Should I get different dish pans?

I'm sorry the red doesn't work, but I read the responses and it makes sense to me. I'm just wondering if you could give me the dimensions of what you bought, so I can go buy the same. I'm a newbie at this. Does it matter what brand? How sturdy would you say the ones you bought were? (Dollar Tree flimsy or Rubbermaid medium or Vintage, Tupperware strong.) Oh! and I just got three 5 1/2 month old Easter Egger Hens (or are they still called pullets until they lay their first egg?) Anyway, I'm also wondering if I should get three for each layer, that I have now. I have Six 3.4 week old chicks. I don't know how many pullets there will be. What I mean to ask is, does each layer or prospective layer need her own nesting box/pan etc.?

 

[valleychicks]

I'm sorry the red doesn't work, but I read the responses and it makes sense to me. I'm just wondering if you could give me the dimensions of what you bought, so I can go buy the same. I'm a newbie at this. Does it matter what brand? How sturdy would you say the ones you bought were? (Dollar Tree flimsy or Rubbermaid medium or Vintage, Tupperware strong.) Oh! and I just got three 5 1/2 month old Easter Egger Hens (or are they still called pullets until they lay their first egg?) Anyway, I'm also wondering if I should get three for each layer, that I have now. I have Six 3.4 week old chicks. I don't know how many pullets there will be. What I mean to ask is, does each layer or prospective layer need her own nesting box/pan etc.?

The dish pan picture I posted was from Family Dollar. I posted this a while back. I never used the pans. I just painted the inside of their wood nest boxes white with a high gloss no voc paint that cleans up easy with white vinegar and water. I use a product called Koop Clean to lay in the boxes. Works great! The red dish pan I was originally going to use turned out to be too small for the nest boxes we made. They are pretty strong boxes though. I have used them for many things and they are still in great shape.

Here is the link to Koop Clean if you want to check it out. http://www.koopclean.com/koop-clean/
They have a store locator tool on their site. Be sure and call ahead to the store it gives in your area though because the one it gave for us didn't have it so I got them to start carrying it.

The unofficial rule for nest box ratio is one nest box for four hens. We have a mini/tractor coop that has four hens and two roosters living in it when they are not semi free ranging in our yard. We have two nest boxes in the mini/tractor coop. We also have a larger coop with four nest boxes for 16 pullets. They take turns unless its a Silkie which I have seen get in with our Dominique hen and lay an egg. Silkie hens share. LOL! Out of the four nest boxes they seem to prefer three so the fourth rarely is used.

As for when is a Pullet a Hen? What I have been told is a Pullet is considered a hen after she is a year old. Not sure if that is true though.

I hope this helped and I hope you have fun on your chicken adventure!

 

[10whiskers]

The dish pan picture I posted was from Family Dollar. I posted this a while back. I never used the pans. I just painted the inside of their wood nest boxes white with a high gloss no voc paint that cleans up easy with white vinegar and water. I use a product called Koop Clean to lay in the boxes. Works great! The red dish pan I was originally going to use turned out to be too small for the nest boxes we made. They are pretty strong boxes though. I have used them for many things and they are still in great shape.

Here is the link to Koop Clean if you want to check it out. http://www.koopclean.com/koop-clean/
They have a store locator tool on their site. Be sure and call ahead to the store it gives in your area though because the one it gave for us didn't have it so I got them to start carrying it.

The unofficial rule for nest box ratio is one nest box for four hens. We have a mini/tractor coop that has four hens and two roosters living in it when they are not semi free ranging in our yard. We have two nest boxes in the mini/tractor coop. We also have a larger coop with four nest boxes for 16 pullets. They take turns unless its a Silkie which I have seen get in with our Dominique hen and lay an egg. Silkie hens share. LOL! Out of the four nest boxes they seem to prefer three so the fourth rarely is used.

As for when is a Pullet a Hen? What I have been told is a Pullet is considered a hen after she is a year old. Not sure if that is true though.

I hope this helped and I hope you have fun on your chicken adventure!

Thank you for all the information! And I'll check out the Koop Clean, too. I had some other chicks, that turned out to be roo's and agonized over what type of cleaning solution was safe to use for them.

 

[valleychicks]

Thank you for all the information! And I'll check out the Koop Clean, too. I had some other chicks, that turned out to be roo's and agonized over what type of cleaning solution was safe to use for them.

The Koop Clean isn't cleaner its a combination of cut straw, hay and a neutralizer Sweet PDZ. I use it in all of our nest boxes and it keeps them fresh. I change it every month. I use white vinegar and water to clean everything. I don't like using chemicals around our chickens so I keep it as natural as possible.