No Hens a Laying

Betty, the only hen old enough to lay eggs, was apparently content to lay her eggs in a corner nest. She molted and stopped laying about the time the three pullets joined the flock. Getting a nest box up before spring was a rare instance of me anticipating a need early.

With the advent of cold weather, I'd turned my attention to cutting firewood, but a few nice days gave me the conditions I needed to complete the double nest box I'd started for the hens.

When I looked up the recommended dimensions online, I found that each nest box should be about a foot square. However, larger was better, on account of two hens wanting to lay in the same one at the same time. Some of the ones I looked at were made of plywood. Too flimsy, I thought.

There were all those 2 x 6's in a pile from when my old porch was dismantled. Perfect, I thought. Even the bottom of the box was made of 2 x 6's. Talk about overkill! I failied to notice that the assembled tiers were going to weigh 'way too much for anyone to pick up. Did I mention that the floor of the coop is not very sturdy? So, I had to come up with a way to mount the Hummer box without adding to the problem of the flimsy flooring.

Any fool would have abandoned the prototype and found some lighter lumber, but I'd already invested a lot of effort making the Big Box, so proceeded to get it mounted. Large brackets seemed to be the answer. I screwed them into the studs, then screwed the three layers of the box above them. Considering weight somewhat belatedly, I used a piece of metal for the top. It was a bear to cut.

 It may require some sort of perch for the hens to access it. I could install a hen lift.

Another carpentry lesson learned: figure the final weight of the project! Lucky I wasn't building a glider.