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What’s a Best Nest Box?

Aaron and I had debated whether or not to get a Best Nest Box for about a year. A Best Nest Box provides chickens a place to lay their eggs, which then get immediately whisked away. The reason the “immediate whisking” is imperative is because chickens poop on their eggs, folks. That’s the gross underbelly of raising egg layers. Dirty eggs equate to more time spent cleaning eggs before we package them up for customers, and time is a limited resource.

What was the hold up?

Just like everything else, it came down to finances. We knew we’d be spending over $200 to purchase the box, and we’ve been strictly budgeting around here lately. After much discussion, we decided if we were going to eventually pay for it, we might as well start reaping its benefits immediately.

Problems

We were experiencing three problems with the Best Nest Box: (1) at least one of our hens was pecking the laid eggs from beneath the mesh of the box, (2) depending on the angle of the chickshaw, some of the laid eggs were getting cracked in their descent, and (3) some of the eggs developed lines on them from rolling down the wiry mesh.

Solution

I used jewelry wire to secure a long piece of fleece to the mesh. (Check out my video below.) This softened the eggs’ descent (No cracked eggs!), provided the eggs a soft surface to rest on (No lines on our eggs!), and created a barrier so that the hens couldn’t see the eggs (No pecked eggs!). A win-win-win!