Four smaller nest boxes or three larger ones.

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flyin-lowe

flyin-lowe

Songster
5 Years
Jan 24, 2016
543
344
169
Indiana
I am using left over scraps form my coop to build my external nest boxes. I have enough for the interior of the box to be 48 inches by about 14 inches deep. I plan to slope it from about 15 inches tall in the front to 12 inches tall at the back. I am starting with 8-10 hens. I could go with three boxes 16 inches wide or four boxes that are each 12 inches wide. Curious if three nest boxes would be enough? My coop is 48 square feet so 12 hens would be them most it would ever have.
 
I've read that you should have a nest box for every 4-5 hens. I have 14 hens sharing 3 boxes without a problem. Being chickens they only use 2 of the boxes anyway. If you have larger hens such as Black Giants or Buff Orpingtons then the larger but fewer boxes would probably be best.
 
You could build one for each hen and the silly things would all lay in just one nest! Mine do, so my advice would be don't overdo it. I actually use plastic basins - one they refused to use, so i removed it - done!
smile.png


All the best
CT
 
From what you describe I don’t see any real reason to favor three nests or four. Larger nests can handle more hens per nest. You could even build it as a community nest box and not have any dividers. A 48” x 24” community nest will handle about 25 hens so you should be OK with just ten in a 14” x 48”.

Whichever way you go you will be OK with ten hens. Make it easy on yourself.
 
Thanks for the info. I think I will go with three 16 inch wide nest boxes. Ill post some pics when they are done.
 

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