DIY Easy and Cheap Chicken Nesting Boxes

In an effort to make my life easier when collecting eggs, my husband came up with a good idea for adding nesting boxes to the outside of our existing coop. We wanted something that had a door so that we could easily open the box and grab the eggs. After some pondering of the situation, my husband decided to use some empty 35 pound cat litter containers. All our hens are Bantams so the size works well for us.

The bottom of the litter containers were cut out leaving an inch and a half on each end to form a lip. The lip provides a way to bolt the container to the coop and provides a way to hold the bedding in and keep eggs from rolling out.

The litter container was partially bolted on to mark the coop for cutting.

Ready to cut the hole.

A 5/16″ hole was drilled as a pilot and the hole was cut with a jigsaw.

The litter container was placed over the opening and screwed on using a screwdriver or drill. We used 1/4′ machine screws with nuts for the mounting.

Easy access for egg collection. Make sure you mount the box so that the door opens down! Otherwise your eggs may roll out.

Two nesting boxes although our girls will probably all want to use the same one.

We use straw for our nesting boxes.

The view from inside the coop.

Silicon was used to seal everything.

I liked how everything turned out. I am more about function than form. My husband is pretty proud of his redneck ingenuity. He says a good redneck comes up with a use for everything. Do you have any unique nesting box or coop ideas?

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