construction design for egg drop nesting box

[opihiman911]

Well I am still dealing with my egg eating hen. Every day she lays an egg, then immediatly stands up and proceeds to peck to end of the egg and eat the inside of the egg, leaving the shell for me to clean up. I have tried all the suggestions everyone gave me, golf balls, extra rations, kitten chow for protein and am about ready to send her off to the retirement jungle. But she is such a good layer and my kids don't want to get rid of her.
So, last ditch effort....does anyone know how to build an egg drop nesting box? My current nesting boxes are 14x14 square box made out of 1x3 sides with a plywood bottom that I fill with grass clipping from my yard. I'm not the best carpenter, but can make thing work, just not pretty finished work (my wife teases me that all my construction projects end up looking like my coop).
It would have to be a pretty quick drop as I've seen her stand up and immediatly start pecking between her legs at the egg.
Any help on an easy egg drop design to save my girl from early retirement?

Aloha,
Cory

 

[4H kids and mom]

Do you have your Chicken Bible?

In Storey's, they suggest slightly slanting the nest box so that the eggs roll to the back out of reach of the chickens. Then you just put up a board with a gap just tall enough for the egg to roll under (and the chicken cant get at her egg) about 2-3 inches up from the back of the nest box.

If you make it so the board slides out its easier for you to then collect your eggs. Oh, and make sure you put some form of padding on the back of the nest or the eggs will crack when they bump it. That will solve your problem and save your chicken.

It will slightly reduce the hens nestbox size, but will save your eggs.

Or, some people do the same thing, BUT make and outdoor collection area so the nestbox size isnt reduced. That takes someone handy and a bit of construction. I am neither, so the above way works for me...lol

 

[MstrFiksIt]

Well I don't know if this will solve your problem or not...

I made a video just for you, and keeping 4H in mind I made it from recycled material.

Watch the video and learn how to make one yourself it really is easy...I had to shorten the video a bit to make it "You Tube" friendly, they only allow ten minutes. however the total time for us to make it..including the bloopers...was about 20 minutes. Anyway, I hope this helps...My wife is going to try ours and see how it works...

watch the video here...

let me know if this works for you...

Gary aka MstrFiksIt

 

[joanna]

Quote:
I just tried the link (8:30 pm...15 minutes after you posted) and got the following error.

The video you have requested is not available.
If you have recently uploaded this video, you may need to wait a few minutes for the video to process.

I'll try again later, I'm interested in this too!

 

[MstrFiksIt]

Yea, sorry, I just uploaded the video...It should be online soon.

 

[MstrFiksIt]

It is working now...check it out and please comment...

thanks
Gary

 

[Juliechickens]

Gary, I watched the video this morning and it worked perfectly. I didn't have to even push something to download it,,,it started playing on it's own as soon as I went to the site. Very neat idea. One question: On the legs for the bowl and the box...what size wood did you use. I saw them but I wasn't sure exactly. Was it a 1x something or a 2x something? Just curious.
Have you used the box yet? Are your hens comfortable laying where a hole is?
Great job on the video!
Julie

 

[opihiman911]

MstrFiksIt, All I can say is AWESOME!!!!!!!! I ask a question and I not only get good answers, I get my own instructional video. All I can say is THIS BOARD ROCKS!!!!!!!

I sat down yesterday and thought about it and came up with the slanted board that rolls the egg to the back, made that in 10 minutes, put a board with cloth hanging hown to hide the egg, some foam weatherstripping on the sides and back and put it back in the coop. My eggeater had a fit and did a complete inspection on it, then sat in it to see if she fit. No egg lat night, she normally lays in the mornings. The only thing I don't like is I took about 6" of nesting space from them.
I have another nest box in my main coop that I think I will try the hole in the bottom. A couple questions, I would assume you would have to taper the corners on inside the box to go into where the hole is? This would be easiest if you put the hole in the end of the box and then a board in the bottom of the nest that slants toward the hole.
Another question I have is this will work with my single eggeater, but what will happen when I put her back in the main coop and 5-6 eggs a day are getting layed and dropped in to the bucket on top of each other? In testing my slanted floor I cracked a couple eggs when they hit each other in the back of the nest. I did have a pretty radical slope of 20 plus degrees so the egg would roll fast before she could stand and peck them, so I lowered it down to maybe 10 degree slope and it still rolled, but didn't smack the back or other eggs as hard and seem to work.
Great ideas, thanks for the solutions, and best of all it will fit my homemade coop decor my wife loves so much

Aloha,
Cory

 

[MstrFiksIt]

Gary, I watched the video this morning and it worked perfectly. I didn't have to even push something to download it,,,it started playing on it's own as soon as I went to the site. Very neat idea. One question: On the legs for the bowl and the box...what size wood did you use. I saw them but I wasn't sure exactly. Was it a 1x something or a 2x something? Just curious.
Have you used the box yet? Are your hens comfortable laying where a hole is?
Great job on the video!

Thank you Julie,

I am glad you liked the video...The legs where made of the same 1x1 wood I used to support the bowl that hangs under the drawer...​

 

[MstrFiksIt]

Cory said:

MstrFiksIt, All I can say is AWESOME!!!!!!!! I ask a question and I not only get good answers, I get my own instructional video. All I can say is THIS BOARD ROCKS!!!!!!!

Thanks Cory,

I am really excited that you liked the video...it is my first instructional video and my mentor hated it...bad lighting, bad camera angles, he hates it when things are not perfect...

anyway, I am glad to see that a few of you liked it...My feeling on the angles into the center of the box was that I would pack the nest with hay on all sides...no matter where she layed the egg it would be forced to drop through...by using the plastic bowl a single egg falling in the hole would be fine...however, I can see the flaw of having more than one egg drop into the box...my design was based on one chicken on box you would need one beox per chicken my way...

I like your idea of placing it in the corner and having the box floor angled to that corner...

I think that a 7 degree angle would be more than enough to make the egg roll into the whole...

If I get time this week I will try to film and make another training video...

If you have not had the pleasure...I have been doing a video series of my wifes rooster therapy...she is scared to death of our rooster and he really is a gentle bird...He spurred me once and now she won't go near him...

you can view those in the general discussion section of the board...

maybe if I do enough videos they will give me my own section

thanks again for your support
Gary​