These free chicken nesting box plans will provide you with 21 DIY options for building suitable boxes for your hens to lay their eggs. Chickens aren’t very picky about where they lay their eggs but having a few chicken nesting boxes makes gathering the eggs a lot easier for you.

The wide range of chicken nesting box plans shown here will help you decide on the DIY chicken box style that is right for your hen house. Hens will lay more eggs when they are happy and feel that their eggs are being laid in a safe spot. Check out these DIY nesting boxes and get the project started this weekend.

1: Wooden Barrel Chicken Nesting Box Plan by lisa

It is a good idea to work on a nesting box which is portable. These will help you in coping up with weird egg laying habits of the chickens. Interestingly, you can build a lovely, half wooden barrel box of chicken eggs in 10 minutes. The material you need:

Wooden barrel ( cut into half)

Cordless drill

Wire snips

Take a wooden slab make holes into it, and make same size holes in the barrel too. Join them together with wire. Make sure the slab has something colorful on it which appeals the chicken.

See this Nesting box plan

2: Triplex Chicken Nesting Box Plan:

This is another one chicken nesting box plan for backyard. This is ideal for those backyard farmers who want to get done with a nesting box which can keep three or more birds at a time. For triplex type, you may need help from a friend or maybe professional. The problem occurs when you are supposed to join wooden slabs all together and form a secure nesting area. Don’t forget to place fake eggs into the boxes; else you won’t be able to convince your flocks to lay eggs inside it.

Check out this Nesting box plan

3: DIY Cute Nesting Box by kelly wood

Here is the guide on how to build chicken nesting boxes and that even in simpler ways, being a novice.

Assemble your needed parts and tools

Cut two equal pieces of plywood (one is the base and other is back)

Cut another two pieces from plywood but make sure they have slanted edges – they will make sides.

Cut roof and front from plywood pieces.

You need 8 different size lumber pieces too

Follow the link to see how to join the wooden slabs together. It is certainly a very good looking sort of nesting box. See the plan here: Diy nesting box

4: External Chicken Nesting Box Plan by ‘the garden coop.com’

If you fail to analyses the chicken nest box size that you need, this type of plan can work best for you. Basically, you draft the nesting box made from wood and attach it with outside part of the chicken coop. The details are given in the link, yet for overview, have a look:

Plywood sheets ( 19 mm thick)

Lumber pieces

Screws for joining

Hinges

Latches

Other materials – for door, windows paint

Attach this gorgeous looking nesting box to your coop not from inside, but from outside, it would look as an additional decor as well as allows extra space to accommodate birds within a coop.

See the Complete plan

5: Down East Laying Box by paul j.bemett:

This one is simple, easy and fast to build nesting box according to its designer ‘paul’. It is an ideal chicken nesting box plan, and that even works perfectly fine for backyard settings. The materials you need for this project include:

Plywood

Strapping

studs

studs Flathead wood screws

Waterproof glue ( for wood)

The link has details about construction and pictures that would give you clear idea about the joining of the various pieces. Get the instruction for this nesting box plan.

6: Quick Chicken Nesting Box Plan by ana white:

It is all wood game – you need to have a slanted top, probably designed with various wooden sheets. Also, with a door type front, you can attract hens to come over it and lay their eggs. Make sure you keep fresh straws in it so that hens feel comfortable. If you think you hens would not get habitual of this behavior, place a fake egg to make them used too.

See this Detail Plan

7: Nesting Box Made Of Dish Pan by rebecca simpson

Metal nesting boxes when bought from the market are an expensive option. However, you don’t have worry for that as DIY plan would facilitate your need. The materials needed would be:

Dishpans (two of same shape and size)

Snips

Drills

Cable ties

Make two equal opening at the main side of the dishpans. Flip one over the other and fix it will screws. This way you will get simplest types of nesting boxes – for depth knowledge, see this complete plan.

8: DIY Plywood Box by simon wells

One of the simplest ways of making a highly functional nesting box is here – use plywood and get done with it. You can either place it on the floor, or hung it for a wall and keep eggs there in the morning. Make sure it is about 10 inches, as it is an ideal nesting box measurement. Make sure you cut the wooden pieces in equal length and fix them well, because that is only part that require attention, rest remains fun. Get the detail here

9: Chicken Nesting Box from Pallet Wood

The hens won’t mind that their nesting boxes are made from recycled pallet wood, as long as each box measures about 1-foot by 1-foot.

Using old pallet wood will make the DIY project almost free to create. These free plans are easy to follow and the nesting box style fits in well with a rustic henhouse design.

10: Chicken Nesting Box Plans for Coop

These free plans will give you a chicken nest box idea for building one box for the coop. One large nesting box with three entry holes will provide a safe spot for hens to lay their eggs.

The DIY nesting box is built on the outside of the hen house with access for the hens from the inside and access for egg gathering on the outside. Keep your shoes clean by staying out of the hen house while gathering eggs with this easy to build design.

11: Plywood Chicken Nesting Box Plans

Use these detailed plans for building a 3-bay nesting box for your hens. This design is 3-feet long and 14-inches tall and equally as wide. The size is easy to customize to fit the space in the chicken coop and the egg box is easy to access for egg gathering.

12: Coop and Chicken Nesting Box Plans

Follow this detailed tutorial for building a chicken coop and egg boxes. This chicken nesting box plans will show you how to build the egg box form just one sheet of plywood. It’s a cost-efficient method of creating a safe place for hens to lay eggs and brood (if desired) and provides easy access to the eggs.

The overall chicken coop is large enough to securely house several chickens and the plans are easy to follow.

13: Chicken Nesting Box With Fold Down Door

After building the hen house you will need chicken nesting box ideas so you can decide the best egg boxes to use in the coop. This chicken nesting box plan shows you how to build a 3-bay egg box on the exterior of the coop that has a fold-down door for easy egg gathering.

The design is also attractive and is great for use when constructing a hen house that will be in an urban or suburban backyard.

14: Exterior Chicken Nesting Box

Make egg gathering quick and easy when you build this exterior nesting box onto the side of the hen house.

This nesting box idea will keep you out of the coop, keep the nesting boxes cleaner, and give you quick access to the eggs. An exterior chicken nesting box is a time-saver and a money-saver, plus it’s easy to build with these free plans.

15: Four Bay Chicken Nesting Box

Here is a great design when you have a large flock of hens producing eggs each morning. Hens are not picky about the building material, design, or shape of a nesting box, but they can be a little picky about which nesting box they choose to lay their eggs in.

Large flocks of laying hens often have a line of hens in the morning waiting to deposit their eggs in a specific box. Building a DIY nesting box with 4-bays provides more options and may reduce the egg-laying lines in the morning.

16: Cheap Chicken Nesting Box

Chickens are messy and most people want to keep the henhouse construction cost down to a minimum because items have to be cleaned and replaced often. This chicken nesting box plan will keep both the cost and the labor down.

Use large plastic bowls as nesting boxes inside the chicken coop. The bowls are cheap to buy, easy to clean and cheap to replace.

17: Roll Away Chicken Nesting Box

This YouTube video tutorial will show you how to build roll away chicken nesting boxes that are easy to move for egg gathering and cleaning, plus are easy to roll out of the way as needed.

The YouTube video provides plenty of detailed instructions for this DIY project and offers other important information.

18: Exterior Chicken Nesting Box

Gather eggs the easy way when you build exterior nesting boxes onto the chicken coop. Quick access to the eggs without having to go into the coop is good for you and will help keep the chickens calm.

Some chicken breeds enjoy human interaction but others are skittish and fearful and dislike human contact. Limit human contact with the hens by using this chicken nesting box plans for an exterior build.

19: Milk Crate Chicken Nesting Boxes

A favorite for many chicken breeders, the standard heavy plastic milk crate egg box. This YouTube video will show you how to create a streamlined design of several milk crates that will be easy for hens to access and easy for you to gather eggs.

20: Five Gallon Bucket Chicken Nesting Box

Watch this YouTube video to discover how to make a chicken nesting box from a 5-gallon bucket. The large plastic buckets are cheap to buy and the plastic is easy to cut, making this DIY project cheap and easy.

21: Plastic Bucket Chicken Nesting Box

Use this chicken nesting box idea to create cheap and easy to clean nesting boxes for your hens.

The cost of plastic bucket is minimal and chickens love them. Mount the buckets sideways on a frame inside the chicken coop and your hens will be happy to lay eggs.