Building Nest Boxes

Ever since we moved the chickens into the big old chicken house, they've been using makeshift crates as nest boxes to lay their eggs in.  Over the weekend, Ken changed all that by building them a whole new nest box complex, completely out of surplus materials we already had lying around.

Here's what the finished project looks like:

 

Here's the first stage, building the base:

Next, with the lower dividers and base for the second level in place:

Now both levels are complete, they just need to be filled with nesting material.

 This is way more next boxes than we need for our current number of chickens, but it's a good number for the maximum number of chickens we're ever likely to want to keep in this chicken house.  Better too many nests than too few!

The chickens weren't too thrilled with having someone in their house doing carpentry for two days, and they were a little skeptical at first of the new Apartment Complex O' Eggs.  But they've been curiously examining the new structure all day, and based on the two eggs I just found, nicely placed in one of the nests, I guess they've decided that they approve.