How to Build a Chicken Egg Catcher

If you have multiple chickens, you may spend a great deal of time sifting through nesting material to find the eggs in your nesting boxes. Save yourself a great deal of time and effort by making your own chicken egg catchers that you can attach to the nesting boxes you already have. By using chicken egg catchers and by changing the way you use your nesting boxes, you will be able to pluck the eggs right out of the catcher instead of searching through nesting boxes to find them.

Things You'll Need

  • Wooden nesting boxes
  • Jig saw
  • Plastic funnel
  • Staple or nail gun
  • Hammer
  • Small plastic bowl
  • 3 or 4 metal hooks
  • 3 or 4 S hooks
  • Nesting material
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Instructions

    • 1

      Empty your nesting boxes and flip them upside down so that the bottom of the box is facing up. Mark the center of each box and trace a circle 3 or 4 inches in diameter. Cut out the circle by using a jigsaw and run a piece of sandpaper over the cut surface to smooth any rough edges.

    • 2

      Cut off the tip on a plastic funnel, leaving the opening between 3 and 4 inches in diameter. Set the funnel upside down on the bottom of the nesting box and centered on the hole you just cut. The hole in the bottom of the funnel should be approximately the same size as the hole cut in the bottom of the nesting box.

    • 3

      Attach the funnel to the nesting box by using a staple gun or nail gun. Drive the nails or staples through the mouth of the funnel at a slight angle into the wood of the nesting box. Flip the nesting box back over and use a hammer to bend down the points of any nails or staples that protrude.

    • 4

      Lay a small plastic bowl over the funnel on the bottom of the nesting box and trace around the edges. The bowl should be at least as wide as the mouth of the funnel, and it should have a lip or rim.

    • 5

      Screw three or four small hooks into the bottom of the nesting box. The shaft of the hooks should be long enough to extend just past the bottom of the funnel. Space the hooks equally around the perimeter drawn using the plastic bowl.

    • 6

      Hang one end of an S hook from each of the metal hooks and hook the other end of each S hook under the rim of the plastic bowl to hold it in place under the funnel.

    • 7

      Reposition the nesting boxes in your coop and hang the plastic bowls under each box. Fill the boxes with your choice of nesting material. Build up the nesting material so that it is higher on the edges and the hole in the bottom of the box is only lightly covered. When your chickens lay eggs in the nesting box, the egg will fall through the hole and into the bowl hanging underneath the box.