My hens have a strong preference for
large nest boxes with a large entrance hole. In the beginning, I have offered several different models of nest boxes, cabinets for Crimson Rosellas, cabinets with and without vestibule, cabinets for King Parrots and a Cockatoo nest box. The preference of all the hens in the group went out to the cockatoo nest box (type hollow trunk), giving many mutual quarrel, but no eggs. Now I produce my nest boxes myself out
of plywood. The front I make segmented so that it somewhat resembles a trunk. The height is about 90 cm and the diameter about 50 cm. About 20 cm below the under part of the entrance hole I make a small plateau of about 5 cm deep, forcing the hen to climb down for a few cm. Below the plateau I placed a shot, which makes the
24 BIRD SCENE
inner bottom surface slightly smaller and more triangular in shape. In order to prevent the hen from jumping
directly on the eggs from still a fairly large height, I also fixed a perch about 30 cm from the bottom. The bedding consists of a 10 cm thick
layer of wood shavings. Before the hen reaches the bottom makes her thus three steps of 20 cm down. It is important that the entrance hole is
large enough, about 10 cm diameter. If the hole is too small, the hen will not enter the nest box. The upper side of the entrance hole is located approximately 8 cm from the top of the nest box. My captive bred hens are content with a
lower rectangular nest box, but the wild- caught birds don’t. When the first egg is laid the hen starts
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