Wood shavings, straw or sawdust are economical choices. Replace bedding every few weeks to keep the nest sanitary and attractive. Encourage chickens to use nesting boxes by placing plastic eggs or golf balls in the nests to simulate recently laid eggs.
While most birds are picky and will simply remove or rearrange any added nesting material, birds that do not build elaborate nests may appreciate a thin layer of coarse sawdust or small wood chips added to a birdhouse or bird nesting box.
A good nest box is clean, dark and filled with soft litter such as wood shavings or rice hulls. Plan to have one nest for every three hens; sized around 30cm x 30cm x 40cm high for standard fowls. Nest boxes can cause first-class drama when all the chooks want to lay in the same box at once.
Hens prefer nesting boxes that are private and darker than other areas of the hen house. Choose the darkest wall of the coop. Next, to get hens using a new nestbox, place it on the floor for the first couple of weeks, then once they are using it, mount it at 50cm (approximately 18 inches) from the coop floor.
Medium- to coarse-grained sand is the best chicken coop bedding as it's non-toxic, dries quickly, stays clean, is low in pathogens, and has low levels of dust. Sand is a much safer choice than all other bedding materials.
Curtains provide a more private, secluded spot for your chickens to lay their eggs. Chickens naturally gravitate to a dark spot where predators won't find the eggs. Curtains can encourage a broody for the same reason – you're providing a safe, hidden spot to sit on her eggs and hatch chicks.
Bedding is essential for placing in your nesting boxes. It provides a soft landing zone for your flock's eggs, which will prevent breakage. Good bedding will also make your hens more likely to lay in their nesting boxes.
Hens like to lay eggs in enclosed places. In a hen house, these enclosures are provided by nest boxes. Many hens like a dark enclosure, but others prefer the nest to have more light.
Organic beddings, such as straw, hemp, or aspen nesting pads, are the best material for your chicken coop nesting boxes. Sand is also acceptable, but less desirable to hens. Plastic, rubber, or artificial grass nesting pads are poor options.
Fallen leaves and twigs left unraked make excellent nest materials for many birds. Providing nooks in your backyard where this untidy debris can collect provides a variety of material for the birds to check out when they are building nests.
Ideally, nesting boxes should be raised 18-20 inches off the ground, but still lower than your roosting bars (otherwise, they'll start roosting on the nests). This can be achieved by securing it to a wall or creating a sturdy platform.
Straw. Straw is one of the most popular chicken coop bedding choices for northern chicken keepers. Straw is an excellent insulator, which makes it great to use during cold winter weather. Not only is it a good insulator, but it is also easy to maintain and chickens love sorting through straw!
Nests should be cleaned once a week to remove dirty litter and manure, and replaced with clean bedding materials (Figure 2). Even under the best conditions, some dirty eggs may still result. Dirty eggs should be placed in a separate container so they don't contaminate clean eggs.
Chickens are busy sleeping at night, and they will not wake up to lay an egg, but gather the strength and energy they need to lay the egg first thing in the morning. With an average production cycle of 26 hours, you can see that your hen will not lay at the exact same time from one day to the next.
Hens typically prefer dark, quiet, out-of-the way places to lay, and if they see other eggs in the nest, they will be even more encouraged to lay there. So start by adding golf balls or wooden nest eggs to your nests, to help your chickens identify the nest as a safe, attractive place to lay.
A few of the most common, nesting materials range from pine shavings to plastic pads and chopped hay/straw/zeolite litter blends such as Flock Fresh. Hens do seem to enjoy rearranging nesting material, but its function is protecting eggs, not entertaining the hens.
NEVER use hay as coop bedding. Hay is livestock feed, straw is livestock bedding. Hay is too "green" and tends to harbor mold and bacteria which is extremely detrimental to poultry health.
Since hay is more nutritious but more expensive, we buy hay solely for the horses to eat. Since straw is cheaper, dried and therefore less likely to mold or attract moisture, we buy straw for the backyard chicken coop and nesting boxes.
Most chickens prefer to sleep on a roost rather than on the floor or in a nesting box. And trying to do the right thing, many backyard chicken keepers provide roosts in the form of broom handles or round bars.
Many chicken-keepers mount nest boxes inside the coop, either set on the floor or attached to an inside wall. This is one valid option, with at least three downsides. The top of the nest box offers a surface on which chickens can roost and deposit poop all night (one more surface for you to clean).
Toys. Dogs and cats are known for liking toys, but chickens appreciate them, too! Mirrors are popular toys for chickens, as they enjoy pecking at their own image. Toys that dispense treats when rolled around are another chicken favorite.
Aesthetically, sand looks cleaner than other litter option and is cleaner; the Auburn University researchers found coliform counts, including E. coli, significantly lower in sand than in wood shavings. Sand continues to be recommended by poultry experts and veterinarians today.