Nests for chickens: how to make your own hands for laying hens with an egg collector at home

Proper arrangement of the house has a positive effect on egg production and egg quality. The presence of nests or specially prepared places for laying hens is a prerequisite for breeding and keeping birds. You can build nests for placing chickens on your own or purchase them from livestock stores.

Nest requirements for laying hens

All chicken roosts must be built and installed with basic requirements in mind. Specifically:

1. You can use straw or sawdust for nesting. The lower part is recommended to be made of metal mesh to ensure constant ventilation of the nests.
2. Make-shift perches should be arranged in such a way that there is free space up to the floor.
3. The number of nests is calculated based on the number of chickens.
4. Perches should not be placed close to the walls, as with the onset of winter in such places it is colder than in other parts of the house.
5. The material used to create the perches is pre-polished, and only short nails are used to connect the parts. The protruding sharp parts are cut off and rubbed with a needle file to prevent injury to the hens.

Sizes and placement

Regardless of the chosen type of sockets, it is recommended to adhere to standard dimensions. The depth of the perch for laying hens varies between 30-40 cm, taking into account the size of the bird, and 30 cm in width and height. The optimal height above the floor is 30-35 cm.The take-off bar should be located 10 cm away from the entrance to the nest and have a section of 5 x 2.

Placement of perches is carried out on the basis of pre-prepared drawings, where the free area and dimensions of the internal elements of the house are determined. You need to draw up drawings for any number of perches, including for 20 or more birds. Places for birds should be comfortable and not create problems when cleaning the chicken coop. It is important to provide open access to them for periodic collection of eggs and updating the flooring. If laying hens do not lay eggs in their designated area, they are moved to a better position.

Types of nests and their features

Different types of nests differ in design features, manufacturing methods and certain advantages. To choose the best option, you should read all the offers. There are the following varieties:

1. Perches in boxes. The similarity of houses for chickens outwardly resembles a box with an entrance opening. Inside, a space is formed for the seclusion of birds and laying eggs. By installing a similar design, it is easy to teach chickens to rush in nests by closing them inside for a while.
2. Nests from improvised materials. This option is suitable for beginner poultry farmers who have not had time to properly equip the chicken coop. It is also the best solution for small livestock and temporary breeding of birds. The main requirement is that all materials at hand must be intact and clean.
3. Nests with egg collector. Eggs are collected from special trays, and laying hens interact with eggs for a small amount of time. When self-made, a funnel-shaped hole is made in the central part of the perch.

How to make DIY chicken nests

When constructing perches for chickens at home, you first need to decide on a suitable variety and prepare a drawing. The manufacturing process depends on your own requirements for the finished structure.

Nest from improvised materials

If you need to equip a poultry house in a short time, you can make perches for chickens using improvised materials. In particular, cardboard boxes, boxes, buckets and other containers are suitable. Often, farmers even use rubber tires and fittings with compartments.

The selected improvised containers should be moderately spacious so that the chickens are comfortable inside. The surfaces of the materials must be carefully inspected so that they do not have defects, falcons and signs of decay. The containers are placed in the chicken coop, filled with hay or sawdust and covered with curtains.

In most situations, such designs perform a temporary function and are used before acquiring or creating more durable ones.

Regular nest

It is possible to build a conventional structure from wood, plywood or OSB boards without special skills and experience. The construction is not labor-intensive and does not take a lot of time. Perches can be single or multi-tiered. For construction, you need to prepare the main material, fasteners (screws, nails, self-tapping screws), sandpaper, a bar, a hammer and a saw. To build a seat, you need to sequentially perform the following steps:

1. Determine the technical parameters, count the number of seats and make visual drawings.
2. To process the material with sandpaper or a file to smooth out sharp corners and rough places.
3. Make construction blanks and, if there are defects, re-grind.
4. Connect the cut parts to each other and fix the bar from the inner corners. The presence of a bar gives the resulting container additional rigidity.
5. Create a passage to the perch by leaving the front open, or by boarding it up and making a small entry hole. At the bottom of the structure, a threshold with a height of about 10 cm is being built.
6. At a distance of 10 cm from the entrance to the nest, fix the rail in a horizontal state, which will serve as a take-off platform for chickens.

When you finish building the nest, you need to carefully inspect it. In the presence of pointed corners, protruding screws and other defects, problems should be corrected to prevent injury.

Nest with egg tray

The roost equipped with a container for collecting eggs is a device that helps to reduce the labor costs of the poultry farmer. The design can be made with a special container under the perch or with a double bottom. When choosing the second option, you will need to use a soft material for upholstery of the second bottom, for example, linoleum, felt or fabric.The material is fixed inside out.

In addition to ease of use, the need to install a perch with an egg box arises so that aggressive hens do not peck eggs. Once on the pallet, the eggs are in a space limited from birds. To make trap nests, you need:

1. Draw a drawing and make blanks based on it. Then the structural elements are to be processed with a file and sandpaper.
2. The lower part of the perch is fixed at a slope of about 5 degrees in relation to the back wall. A small space should be left between the wall surface and the bottom edge so that an egg can pass through the gap.
3. The egg collection tray is made more oblong, 10-15 cm larger than the main structure. The egg collector is trimmed with woven material and a wooden plank is fixed on the front.
4. Similar to the bottom of the perch, the egg collector is fixed at a slight slope.

A nest with a container for collecting eggs is made in the same way, with the exception of one difference. Instead of a gap between the bottom and the back wall, a slot is made in the lower cavity of the container, the diameter of which is slightly larger than the size of a chicken egg.

Frame nest

The main advantages of the frame structure are strength and long service life. To build this type of nest, you will need a standard set of materials and tools. The process of building a seat for a brood hen involves assembling a frame from wooden blocks and sheathing with plywood. Installation of an egg box is not a mandatory requirement and is carried out at the request of the poultry breeder

Metal socket

Building a perch out of metal will take longer and be more difficult than building a wooden structure.At the same time, the iron perch is many times more resistant to external influences and has a long service life. To carry out the work, you will need to use a grinder for metal, a puncher and screws. From the materials you will need metal pipes with a cross section of 3-5 cm, sheets of galvanized steel and wire or steel mesh. To make a design, you need:

1. Draw a diagram of the future design, mark the markings on steel sheets and make blanks.
2. Cut out the bottom of the seat from the mesh or twist a similar piece of wire.
3. Connect the walls and bottom with screws, placing the lower part at a 10 degree slope, and then attach the roof.
4. Install a container for collecting eggs, which is cut out of steel sheets and lined with fabric.

Fixing nests in the chicken coop

Perches in the poultry house should be fixed so that it is convenient for the hens to sit in them and lay eggs.It is preferable that the nests do not come into contact with the walls of the chicken coop. The most common option is the construction of special stands that are fixed on the walls. Stands are made from ordinary wooden boards of suitable length, and screws and loops are used as fasteners.

How to train a hen to nest?

To accustom a bird to a nest, you can forcibly restrict its access to free movement and periodically leave it on the perch. As a less aggressive method, you can put objects that look like chicken eggs into the seats.

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