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I cannot believe our girls our officially 18 weeks old today. How time flies! Since chickens will typically start laying between 18 and 20 weeks old, it was time to get their nesting box sanctuary ready for them.
It’s a pretty simple setup, but I did do a fair bit of research to identify what I felt was the best material for them. I was looking for clean, sustainable, anti bugs/mites, and not detrimental to their respiratory health (i.e. dusty). Given all of those criteria, I landed on Aspen nesting pads. These pads are 100% grown in the USA, sustainably harvested, affixed to backer paper to prevent waste from the girls from scratching them out of the nesting boxes, not hollow (so there aren’t nooks and crannies in the material for bugs), and not dusty. Wins all around! While it does initially look like less product for the money, compared to buying a whole bale of hay, these pads should last about 1-2 months, but each box comes with ten, so I won’t need to replenish the box but a few times a year.
After I nestled the pads into the boxes, you know I couldn’t help myself and not give them as much extra love and care that I possibly could… so I layered some beneficial dried nesting herbs and flowers onto them to promote relaxation, immune health, and healthy bright yolks. What’s good for them is good for me, both emotionally and nutritionally, right??
And then of course, I placed a wooden egg in each box to let the ladies know it’s a safe place for them to lay their eggs.
I cannot wait to find the first real egg in there. I have my bets on who will lay first, but I’m sure they’ll surprise me, like they always do.
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