Nesting boxes

[DonaldG]

Might be a silly question but.......... Can you build one large nesting box for 3 chickens or do you have to have 3 seperate ones?

 

[justplainbatty]

Might be a silly question but.......... Can you build one large nesting box for 3 chickens or do you have to have 3 seperate ones?

Chickens want a safe cozy place to lay their eggs. They may all favor the same box but not at the same time. Each hen arranges her nest the way she wants which is different from the others. If a hen goes broody, she will NOT let another hen near, then what? It's best to have separate boxes.

If you only have 3 hens, two nest boxes is fine.

 

[DonaldG]

I plan on having 4-6

 

[Alaskan]

I like great big nest boxes, space for at least two hens per box, and then two separate nests.

If the two nest boxes are big and roomy, then that is plenty for about 8 chickens, maybe even more.

(I currently have a bunch of hens.... dunno how many, but maybe close to 20, and they have two double wide big nests, and then one small nest. I only rarely find an egg in the 'wrong' spot)

 

[justplainbatty]

I plan on having 4-6

Planning ahead for more hens? Always a good idea if you have the space!

 

[PapaChaz]

I've always read that a nest box big enough for more than one chick at a time brings about a bigger risk of broken eggs. a foot square and about 13 or 14 inches tall is plenty big enough. Thinking the general rule of thumb is a nest box for every 3 (maybe 4) hens, but I'd want at least 2 even if I only had a few girls.......

 

[Alaskan]

At one point in time communal nests were all the rage... even in big operations, so I am not sure if I believe that big nests cause more broken eggs...

Now, a true communal nest box is different than what I have... mine are just super wide nest boxes...

however, I think that logically a wide nest box would be LESS likely to cause broken eggs, since there is more room in there for the ladies to move about.

I only get broken eggs when the eggs aren't collected for a couple of days, and there are WAY too many in the box.

well, or if they freeze

frozen eggs are cracked eggs.

However, with fewer nest boxes, the ladies take turns keeping the eggs warm, which means less frozen eggs.

 

[FridayYet]

I'm about to build some new nest boxes and I think I'll go the double wide/communal route. Seems like there's always two hens that want to be in the same box at the same time, so I think I'll make it comfortable for them.

Still deciding on what will work best for my space.

 

[Alaskan]

and


these are in my bantam coop, and are about 1.5 feet wide and just over one foot deep, which is good and roomy for a bantam.

The bottom one is a box, the top one has the end and a little on the front open.