DIY Chicken Nesting Boxes

Chickens like to feel safe and cozy when they lay eggs, while they will find some crazy places to lay their eggs it can make finding them a true Easter egg hunt! We made some inexpensive, easy to make nesting boxes that the chickens love!

Material

🐾 Five Gallon Buckets; Buckets are easy to get, you can buy them at the hardware store or you can ask your local grocery store or bakery if they would save you some. Our buckets were given to us by a local store, the cake frosting the store orders comes in 5 gallon buckets. We just had to wash some extra frosting out when we brought them home.

🐾 Saw or Grinder; We used a grinder to cut the lids

🐾 Scrap Wood and Screws; Used to hold the buckets in place

🐾 Shavings or Nesting Pads; Added to the buckets to make the hens comfortable, so they can't slip and so the eggs don't break

Cutting The Buckets

🐾 We cut the lids so the chickens could get inside but left a little lip so the chickens can't kick out eggs or shavings

Installing The Nesting Boxes

🐾 Screw down a scrap piece of wood to the floor where you want your nesting boxes, this will tilt the buckets at an angel so eggs will roll to the back and be easier for the chickens to get in and out

🐾 Screw the buckets where you want them to the wood and we also secured the backs of the buckets to the wall to ensure the buckets cannot roll at all when a chicken is getting in or out

🐾 We wanted two layers high of nesting boxes so we repeated the process again just on top of the first later

Add Bedding

🐾 For the first couple of days we used shavings as bedding inside the nesting boxes but I found that collecting eggs was more of a treasure hunt, the eggs would work their way down to the bottom of the shavings and we even had a cracked egg. So instead I found some thick nesting pads that the chickens can spread out around them and the eggs stay right on top!

🐾 I also threw in some fake eggs in a couple of the nesting boxes to encourage the chickens to lay there

Giving Chickens Privacy

🐾 While this is totally optional I really wanted to add something cute to the nesting boxes that would also give the chickens some privacy and an extra sense of comfort. Now I cannot sew to save my life, I am a very crafty person and can pick up new things fairly easy but sewing is just not for me! I made these cute chicken curtains with just a pair of scissors and a hot glue gun!

🐾 Switching from ducks to chickens has been a night and day difference in cleanliness, our ducks were so messy and I spent most of my time trying my hardest to keep things clean and to keep the mud down. Now obviously I still have to clean with chickens but it takes me half the time to do so. I have been taking advantage of using time I would normally spend on cleaning to adding new cute things for the chickens to enjoy!

Keeping chickens doesn't have to be expensive to be functional or look nice! Remember to always just do what you can and what works for you when it works for you and enjoy your chickens!