Sunday, February 6, 2011

Bucket Brigade

It took a while for  the hens to decide they like  the 5-gallon bucket nesting boxes I made for them, but now  they prefer them to the wooden  cubbies. I prefer them too - they are so much easier to clean out.
I was  worried that some of  the chickens would be too big to maneuver inside the buckets, but even the largest hens seem to have no problems getting in and turning around.
There are  six nesting buckets, but for some reason the hens seem to choose  just a couple buckets to lay their eggs in, but not the same buckets each day.  Most mornings I find 6 or 7 eggs in each of three nesting buckets and three are empty. This despite the fact that often there are hens waiting to use a bucket that is already in use,  loudly scolding the hen inside laying and telling her to hurry up, while there is an identical bucket free right beside it.    Maybe they like the nest to be warmed up for them.

9 comments:

Marie said...

well, i prefer a warm nest to a cold one!!! do the girls sing too...ours hum a little ditty while impatiently waiting....

Unknown said...

I almost did the buckets, and I still might. Your girls seem to enjoy them

katiegirl said...

I alwasy thought it was funny how they prefer an already occupied nest as well. :-)

Leslie Lyne Zantow said...

I had a broody hen purposely use an old 5 gallon bucket to set in. I have pictures somewhere of her brood. They loved that bucket. I need to get information together for the village meeting regarding having chickens in Cambria. A lot of the small towns around us have okayed chickens, thanks to the once underground chicken movement in Madison. Maybe I should go underground and just start building my coop in the barn.
My hens always wanted the same nesting box. I wonder why that is?

Rebecca said...

Your nesting boxes/buckets look great. It's such a clever idea, I only wish that my coop was bigger so that I could try this out!

Michaele said...

Looks nifty and comfy! Good job!

Anonymous said...

Great idea - especially for those legions of people that will be following us with urban chickens!

kjsutcliffe said...

Hi, I was sent this link to your bucket nests and was so so impressed that I just had to go and make my girls a row of them, If you want to see how they turned out please have a look at my link I just wanted to thank you for sharing!

http://hawthorntime.blogspot.com/2011/02/look-look-look-or-as-my-hens-would-say.html

Morley Farm said...

I saw these on another site and am going to try them for my hens! Morley Farm