Wood vs. plastic for nest boxes?

[ajvince]

Our chickens just started laying a few weeks ago. We have a combination of wooden boxes (4x) and two plastic litter boxes. The litter boxes are uncovered. So far the ladies prefer the litter boxes. We originally got the litter boxes for our ducks. But they haven’t started laying yet... I’ll keep you posted.

(We use diatomaceous earth to ward off mites. We haven’t had problems yet, but our coop is only 4 months old.)

 

[texsuze]

I use small, deep, plastic Rubbermaid (or similar) tote containers (lid removed); I cut a "U"-shaped opening in the front end (short side) for girls to enter/exit. These totes are tall enough on the sides to provide privacy and are placed within each coop so they can't move or be tipped over. Very easy to remove and clean and no tight corners to get grungy. Since I have a horse, I use coastal hay in my nest boxes. Girls can tuck in and feel comfortable. Some of my girls sleep in their nest boxes, too; not a problem.

 

[HollyWoozle]

Our chickens just started laying a few weeks ago. We have a combination of wooden boxes (4x) and two plastic litter boxes. The litter boxes are uncovered. So far the ladies prefer the litter boxes.
View attachment 1989979

Thank you for your detailed reply and helpful pics too. Interesting that they prefer the uncovered option!

I use small, deep, plastic Rubbermaid (or similar) tote containers (lid removed); I cut a "U"-shaped opening in the front end (short side) for girls to enter/exit. These totes are tall enough on the sides to provide privacy and are placed within each coop so they can't move or be tipped over. Very easy to remove and clean and no tight corners to get grungy. Since I have a horse, I use coastal hay in my nest boxes. Girls can tuck in and feel comfortable. Some of my girls sleep in their nest boxes, too; not a problem.

This sounds like an excellent option too. I have horses as well and plenty of hay too!

 

[aart]

On a few occasions we have had eggs crack inside them and egg has managed to reach the bottom of the boxes. As you can imagine, that is not all that pleasant and I found the only way to clean was using water.

I can do more than imagine, have cleaned many broken eggs out of my wooden nest, used a damp rag a few times...then put pieces of vinyl in bottom of nests, easy to lift the entire mess out and rinse off vinyl...extra piece of vinyl makes for a quick change and time for washed piece to fully dry.

 

[NanaK]

My hens have wooden nest boxes and I line them with feed bags. I clean the feed dust out really well and cut to make 2 nest box liners. If an egg breaks, I can remove the liner with most of the nesting material and dispose. Just pop in a new liner and material and no need to scrub anything. Works great for me! Read about this here on BYC but don't remember who made the post to give them proper credit.

 

[HollyWoozle]

Vinyl or feed bags sound great too! So many seemingly simple ideas but I didn't think of any of them myself.

I think I'll end up getting some new wooden nest boxes and lining them somehow at least, whether that be with some kind of tray or a simple liner so that I can easily clean them. I'm hoping to have much better control of mites this coming year too, it has certainly been a learning curve.

 

[Shadrach]

Deep boxes with earth in would be my choice.
Plastic drums with half a lid on their sides are quite popular here.
A rubber mat at the base of either plastic or wooden boxes is a good idea. These give a bit of purchase for the hens feet which can be important.

 

[HollyWoozle]

Thank you, @Shadrach. I wonder if we have any leftover rubber matting from when we did one of the stables.

 

[springvalley123]

For reference, I live in a very hot climate that also gets well below freezing with some snow. I used to use two large wooden nest boxes and had a large plastic tote (shown) screwed to the top of the wooden boxes, to create two pairs. The birds used the wood ones and the plastic ones shown. I sold those birds (Turkens), and now have four Andalusian pullets who are not laying yet.

Now, I only have the large plastic tote that 's divided into two nests. I don't have the dimensions of my tote handy, but note that if a product description says that a tote is 36 inches long, that's the top, outside measurement and the bottom floor space would be 30 inches or less.

I used a box knife to cut the openings, which are about 8 inches square. I screwed the bottom of the box onto a piece of wood and set it onto the concrete blocks. I used shims to level the wood. I can unscrew the tote to clean if need be. The partition isn't bolted down at all, I had no problems with it previously.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Our chickens just started laying a few weeks ago. We have a combination of wooden boxes (4x) and two plastic litter boxes. The litter boxes are uncovered. So far the ladies prefer the litter boxes. We originally got the litter boxes for our ducks. But they haven’t started laying yet... I’ll keep you posted.

(We use diatomaceous earth to ward off mites. We haven’t had problems yet, but our coop is only 4 months old.)

View attachment 1989979

I have both in my coop. I have a 4 foot space underneath the poop board and in the middle I put a kitty litter box with bricks inside so it won’t tip over when the chicken goes in. That makes three nesting areas underneath the poop board. They really like this area and use all three nests. The two side areas are not really boxes, but with the curtain in front of it, it’s like a nest box.