Backyard Poultry Info Centre

Yes, the small hand held angle grinder is the go. But make sure you wear gloves, and long sleeve shirt, as the sticky plastic really BURNS!!! (talking from experiences )

I use an old bar fridge lying door upward (motor out so it's light to move).
The lid lets you inspect/clean/get eggs out easily. I can move the whole unit easily without help.
On the face I cut out two round holes for chooks to come and go, which they do happily. The edges of metal are filed smooth. I'm very unhandymanlike but it took hardly any time at all to make.
The whole thing is sitting up on four milk crates, two sticking out at the front forming a perch so they hens can inspect the nest before they get inside.
In the middle of the fridge halfway between the two door-holes, using the fridge shelf slots, I slid in a bit of plywood so there are two separate compartments.
With the upper lid (the fridge door) slightly ajar using a bit of wire to prop it a few millimetres up they get plenty of ventilation besides the front holes.
My hen hatched a clutch in record time, I suppose because of the extra insulation. So it works!

I use an air hacksaw, it will cut anything from plastic to steel.
Regards
Mario

I am going to try using A4 cardboard boxes when my bantams are old enough to lay. It was suggestted to me by other BYPer's and I think it will be a great disposable option for now

I have an enclosed kitty litter tray and my girls fight over it (usually all three cram into it at night when it's cold). Also use an old drawer out of the kitchen I recently replaced and a large garden pot on it's side.

i use the old black square recycling crates. Easy to clean, and perfect size. You can pick them up from some council depots or from stratco

We did use beer boxes until Brad finished our coops and now we have built in models. Here is a pic of some before they are fulling finished.

20 gallon drums with a square cut out with an angle grinder does it for me !!

I have various nest 'boxes' 2 gutted out computer monitors... the cover of a boat motor with a door hole in it, mower catchers... some kind of box thing possibly from some peice of office furnature a man up the road gave me, a few barrels and a cut down drum. And an old wardrobe cut in half with the top shelf still in it, hard to describe.

Wheelbarrows

No seriously, the current favourite egg laying spot is in a wheelbarrow that is half full of dirt topped off with mulch hay that was destined for the garden before the chooks took it over. It now has an iron roof "overhang" to keep the sun and rain off them. Fits two to three hens in it. We've also had broodies build nests and raise chicks in wheelbarrows that were left in the wrong spot. Works out well because you can move them if the spot becomes indesirable due to weather etc and they are easy to secure wire to the top as a cover to protect from snakes etc. Also easy to clean!

Other favourite laying spots include ontop of the round bales in the stable. The (now) old square bale on a stand that we were going to give to the horses before chooks made a nest of it. Now it's good for the garden but they're still using it. We've also cut in half a few of the barrels I used to use for training for both horse sporting and as rough jumps for cross country, fill them with hay and either lay the half on its side or standing upright. The ducks like those the most.

I use 200L drums on their side that the OH has cut and filled with sugarcane mulch, with the lip on the bottom nothing gets pushed out. And it's big enough for the sussex'
These are of the ground, welded to box section then cemented in.

I used to use 20L oil drums, when I had little chooks but they are to small for sussex, my OH cut them and then put garden pipe around the edges so they wouldn't get cut.

Both lots of durms/nest boxes have drain holes drilled in them, which was needed when it flooded.

It's temporary while I sort out more permanent quarters for the girls, but for now I use an old four drawer filing cabinet on its side, 2 drawers removed for access, the nests being in behind the drawer fronts left in place. The straw has to be thick to cover the metal runners which can't be removed. Easy to clean, and fits the biggest birds, even two at a time if they decide to snuggle in together to lay.

I found a few old wicker baskets (one round and one square...) from the street throw out....and tied them to the side of the cage/coop with plastic tie wires...I cut the lid off the square one and strapped it to the outside of the cage...(again with my favorite plastic tire wires)...and made like a privacy shield

..2 chooks can sit in one basket and often do...they love them as they are up quite high...looks so cute...chicken's in a basket...I have no camera that I can post a picky...will try and borrow one...it really is very cute and they love them even to sit in and relax...

Aside from the ones integrated into the premade coop;

I have two cat carriers, one small & one large, with doors removed (or attached & tied open). They are just outside the back door.

The smaller one sits on top of the larger one. Both are lined with lots of lucerne. One of my girls (Elwood) regularly lays in there rather than the coop ones, and one of the others (Ruby) has recently started to lay in there occasionally.

It's lovely on a wet, windy, rainy day to be able to take three strides from the back door to get fresh eggs.

Winglet (It was Elwood's idea... I thought she'd stopped laying once, and found her eggs in a box near the back door a day or two later)

These are what I use, from Bunnings. Not cheap, but very easy to clean and move when I need to.

I have used them both open like this:


or together like this:


The cleanablility is what I really like and that they're deep and the nesting material stays in them really well.