This post will be long...just to warn you ahead of time. But, it will also be full of wonderful pictures too! :) Well, the chickens are 4 and a half months old, haven't found any eggs yet and just getting them warmed up to the nesting boxes and perch next to them. That being said, we finished the nesting boxes about 2 weeks ago or so. That's right, I'm not very good at posting on here because I wanted to get them painted and put straw in there too before I posted the final post about the boxes.
So, here is the process. We made the base, then put on the sides separately, we also put some sheet insulation above between the roof and the boxes. Which is where these pictures start.
We framed in the sides so that we could make a front whole piece to put on so that it looked clean and nice. We used wood stakes as our partition pieces to hold the sides.
This is us putting in the bottom stakes. We had it stick out about 3 or 4 inches so that we could put the perch on the end of the stakes.
Then, we put in the same stakes up top to help support as well.
Then the sides...we used a nail gun to attach the walls on there. Having that nail gun really made this a slick process.
Then we made our front piece and nailed that on as well as the perch. The perch ended up being a long piece of PVC pipe that we had left over from the temporary run. It actually turned out to work really, really well. The openings for the boxes are about 10 inches square, I think. And, I believe, the inside of the boxes is 13 inches from side to side.
Closer up picture...
The chickens were curious what we were doing, but when we put them in the boxes they didn't like it and jumped right out.
Here is what they did while we worked...play free in the yard. Yay!
Someday we'll have a nice fenced in yard that we can let them just run free all the time...
Hehe...here are two of the girls nesting in some holes that they have made in the run. Hubby hates it when they do this and dig holes. (I think its so cute!!)
Then, I painted the nesting boxes and perch. Broke up some straw and here we are!
Don't those just make you want to crawl in there and lay an egg? I've been able to convince some of them to stay in the boxes but usually only at night. I've got most of the girls sleeping on that perch, except for the 2 roosters and the 2 leghorns. I don't know how I am going to get those leghorns in there, I can barely handle them, they are just so jumpy. Hmm...I'll have to figure something out. There was going to be more, but I might take a quick nap before hubby gets home from work. Don't tell him! :)
xoxo
c
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