Nesting box material: What your hens want
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- Find out what your hens need in the nesting box and which material they love above all others.
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These are the materials I've used in my nesting boxes:
Aspen nesting box liners - amzn.to/3gJ6d20
Aspen shavings - prf.hn/l/62GxJdV
Hemp - prf.hn/l/6WLQb9k
Shredded paper - prf.hn/l/rpOpqq9
Raffia - amzn.to/3gQdCLQ
Sand
Straw - amzn.to/3cZNVr8
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For scientific references, see my blog post: www.thefeather...
I got a shredder and shred junk mail (nothing glossy) for nesting material. My girls loved it and it's supply is endless!
If you have any stores around that import pottery or stoneware of some kind, they sometime have crates packed with raffia to cushion the stoneware! Might want to explore some of those options! God Bless!
Mine like shavings and hate the fake grass inserts... I hate the shavings because of the mess they make all over the coop with shavings (I use recycled coffee bedding) the mats I've found useful under the nesting material as I can scoop the entire thing up dump and clean and replace
That rooster keeps finishing your sentences, haha.
In Germany we mostly use soft hay, and the hens love it.
@3:20 ---> Adorable chicken magically appears on picnic bench.
Great advice about the plastic inserts. My original coop had no plastic floor mats in the nesting boxes, and the hens laid beautifully. But more importantly, I never had a problem with the hens pooping in the nesting boxes. When I built the new hen house, I tried using the plastic mats, with straw laid on top. Not only did the hens kick all the straw out of the boxes, they also started pooping in the nesting boxes. So I've decided to ditch the plastic, and go back to the original bedding material: a mix of straw and pine shavings. Thanks for sharing this video.
Super useful info, thank you for sharing! I know this is an older video so this might not still be helpful, but they actually sell a product very similar to the raffia wood called wood wool, or excelsior some places, and it’s much cheaper because it’s sold as a packing material. I’ve been using it for years for fruit fly cultures and it sounds exactly like the that raffia wood product. I wonder if that might be a more budget friendly option than buying the decor version?
Landscapers have the excelsior bales. It’s shredded wood from Pine I think.
@@milliekallio6424 thanks, good to know.
Excelsior, I'll look for that.
I’ve literally just started keeping chickens, had them a week today. And I must admit I’ve put large flake wood shavings with straw on top, simply because I thought it would be soft for them! Plus I love watching them throw the straw around!
Just throwing this out there... I place a fake egg in each nesting box as the pullets are coming into their age of laying. This is fail proof, at least in my 4 flocks I've raised.
Only problem is, the fake egg looks so real that my hubby "collects" it as a real egg, and I have actually processed the egg to sell!!! Lol
Also, we had a flock that one of the hens accidentally broke an egg in the best box, so several hens ate it.. I learned that once a chicken eats the egg yolk, she will continue to break more eggs to eat them & she teaches the other hens. She would even get into a nest box with another chicken, so she could eat the egg laid!!
I tried putting curtains up in front of each box, I tried changing the nest box material, and I collected eggs every couple hours. NOTHING WORKED UNTIL I placed a fake egg in the nest.
But get this: She & other hens continued eating eggs, but now she rolled the egg out of the nest boxes, breaking them on the ground. (Too smart, huh!!) But at least the egg mess stopped in tge nest boxes, and a few eggs were left alone in the boxes.
Eventually we culled the flock, which also has helped us adjust to raising chicken for eggs & meat.
I also put fake eggs in the nesting boxes with pullets. The trick to an unsuspecting husband is to use plastic colored Easter eggs that don't look like real eggs. :) That way he can't get it wrong, but pullets still seem to respond well.
I've had a couple of egg eaters, but this habit has never spread through my flock like it has with yours. Chickens are such individuals - this is a good reminder that something that works for one flock might not work for another. I've also only had a problem with egg-eating during the summer, which makes me wonder if, in my flock, they're fulfilling a nutritional deficiency by eating their eggs. Thank you for sharing your experience, Becky.
-Bri
@@thefeatherbrain I wish I had thought of plastic Easter eggs. I bought wooden ones & put a black 'X' on them, so no mistakes.
bought 3! And would you believe Amazon sent them out separately! That makes me feel bad, BUT, we will see how this works. Slow go so far but they are just starting out and have NO CLUE.. I still have one Wyandotte laying in the corner on the floor... heck of a cup she has made
Can’t wait to see your feed videos
Sand fleas are normally only found on beach sand. I would have thought that beach sand is too fine for chicken coops and the salt content wouldn't be good for either the chickens or the soil. Is that correct?
It's a lot cheaper to get "Northern Flight Raffia Prairie Grass" by the pound.
Where ?
Fantastic information Bri !! you really laid out all the bedding options….. can’t wait for your next video about our wonderful girls( Though i heard a rooster or two in the background…).
Very helpful! Thank you.
Hi, I have some chickens that eat the eggs, so I built a roll away box addition so they can't get them, except for the stretch of course, I built the hide away box after they started eating the eggs, but now after your video I think the damage might be because of the drop because it's always the tip that gets damaged, but doesn't break the egg just cracks them, so now I am thinking, I need to put something down that breaks the fall, but still allows the eggs to roll away. Thank you
Thanks, this was very helpful!
So glad you found it helpful, Laura! :)
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THANK YOU!!
What about dry dead leaves or dried grass clippings? We are trying to avoid straw because of the Grazon issue… we don’t want the straw to end up in our compost
That should work too.
Phew
Be careful. They will eat the grass and it will cause sour crop.
8:58
also loved the vid, hoping to build a larger nest box shelf for my girls so they stop squabbling over the 2 in the coop.
8:58 Glad someone noticed that little nugget. :)
Best videos out hens out there
watch it cameraman ,she'll come up behind you and get you when you least expect it. LOL, they will all cluck together like it's funny
I really appreciate 🎉 the amount of research that you put into every topic and you're willingness to share it so freely. Thank you.
What about pine shavings.
Here's why I don't recommend pine shavings - www.thefeatherbrain.com/blog/toxic-chicken-coop-pine-shavings
But if you decide to use them anyway - www.thefeatherbrain.com/blog/pine-shavings-chicken-coop-bedding
I have seen some people putting door mat liners in nesting boxes, without bedding- they had hens eating all of the bedding in their nests. (I don’t have chickens yet I am trying to learn before hand) so I was curious what bedding is good that they won’t “eat”. You had said sand is nice in hot summer, in another video I watching so That’s cool.
I thought straw could get caught in the crop.
Hi Valerie,
I typically use a chopped straw that's much thinner and shorter than regular straw. I've even used it in my chick brooder. But I've also tested regular straw in the nesting boxes with no problems.
Straw can cause crop impaction if your hens are eating it, but most adult hens won't eat it if they always have food available AND they have plenty of other things to do in their coop and run. They can eat bedding out of boredom and frustration.
If in doubt, use chopped straw (I'm certainly more comfortable with it), or just use a different nesting material altogether.
Good luck!
Bri
How long does the raffia last
It depends on if your hens drag poop or mud into your nesting boxes. In my coops and runs with sand, the nesting material stays very clean and I can go a couple of months without changing it.
However, my free range chickens drag mud in and so I have to change nesting material every week. I also have egg eaters in one of my coops every spring and need to change nesting material with broken egg mess every couple days.
I also live in a very dry climate. I'm not sure if people in hot, humid climates may need to change more frequently.
👍👍👍
I have seven chickens. Six hens and a rooster. Very sweet rooster by the way. My hens have started to lay eggs and one of them is laying her eggs in the play pool of water. Is that very strange? I’m new to chickens.
Lol that is definitely strange...
Very good info!!!! Thank you so much!!
I am going to try long soft pine needles.
Really good video …thank you😊
I love the depth of your researching! Just awesome!
Thank you - I spend so much time on all this but very few acknowledge it, so I appreciate your appreciation. :)
Shredded fall leaves
How many nesting boxes do I need? One for each chicken?
Usually 1 per 2-3 hens is enough.
Hey Bri, how long do those raffia mats tend to last for you, before they have to be replaced?
They last as long as they're kept clean. In my climate (which is admittedly very dry), they can last a month or two.
is It a Girl Very pretty Cat 🐈
Itty 🙂
vert helpful. I have looked it up because my hen got crazy and jumped on the roof to lay egg and made so much noise so I let her out to look for good place in the garden. I thought maybe I can learn better what they like to lay eggs in, so I hope I will find something. could just dried grass could work too. I hope,
I have a question: What is the right way to take the eggs from the chicken so they don't freak out?
like what happened now, it have been 2 weeks that she was laying in the normal place in the coop.
Maybe here I mistaken..
now she found a spot curtly out of reach.. but not on the roof .. :)
I have polymath rock
Your hen sounds like a real character. Dried grass could work but make sure you change it when it gets moist at all so it doesn't mold.
Can you take the eggs when you're chicken's not around, or maybe you're doing that already? Typically, they don't mind if you take their eggs as long as they're not sitting on them.
It is spring (where I live at least, not sure where you are), so perhaps your hen's hormones are kicking in and she wants to set. If that's the case, she'll be looking for the safest spot where her eggs are out of reach. There's not really anything you can do to prevent that other than try to make your nesting box feel like the safest spot. You could try curtains over it - just hang some material, but start with the curtains open until she gets used to that. Then after a while, you can let them hang closed. Otherwise, not much you can do to curtail her mama's instincts, unfortunately.
Best of luck, Ofir.
Bri
@@thefeatherbrain Yes she is a special hen, I think we also mistaken her name "Spartacus" after the man Spartacus. It in my boyfriend made this mistake, but we called her this way as she was since youths jumping over and escaping.
She is our largest and most dominant hen.
Yes I do take it when they are not around but maybe when they are too close to the coop.. And it is spring here as well, I wonder if we would leave her the eggs, will she sit on them and take care of little chocks or she is not "designed" for it..?
And I will they your advise about the nesting box.
thank you for the response it is so awesome to ask question and get help and suggestion.
Whether Miss Spartacus is designed for incubating eggs will depend on your strain of Plymouth Rock and her instincts. My Plymouth Rocks never ever sit on their eggs. Those mama instincts have been bred out of them. However, I know of other people whose Plymouth Rocks have come from different hatcheries/breeders who do want to incubate their eggs and make excellent mama hens.
If you want her to hatch chicks, you could leave the eggs in there for a few+ days and see if she takes to them or not.
Bri
Curious how long till I would need to change the bedding or the raffia?
Also sorry I think I found the answer from comments about how often to change but I looked on Amazon can you share which ones ? I type in raffia but when I read about it it doesn’t say anything. I’d love to know which one exactly thank you love your videos they are super helpful
It depends on if it's getting dirty. If you're getting mud, poop, or broken eggs, you'll need to change frequently. But if it's kept dry, I'll sometimes go as long as 2-3 months. 1 month is typical for me though.
The link is in the description - but here it is - amzn.to/3gQdCLQ
Best of luck!
Bri
Question. I raise Alfalfa hay for my cows and horses. Can I use this alfalfa hay for my nest boxes and brooders? I live several miles outside of town (400 people in the middle of no where southeastern Utah) so getting any variety of material is difficult. Most people not from the Intermountain West don't understand the distance we have to drive to find anything. We drive to Grand Junction Co. which is a three hour drive at 80 miles an hour on our nearest Interstate.
I would but my hens shredded it and scratched it until it needed replacing lol . I saw a guy used Astro turf (fake grass). May use that idea
Wow! Beautiful information. Thank you.