Bantam & LF Nest Boxes

[Vora]

I currently have 4 young chickies, one which is quite obviously a roo (the D'Uccle), so will be transplanted to the horse farm ^^. The rest are unknown, but assuming they are all pullets, I have what you can see in my siggy. So, I need to know if the remaining 3 (I never plan on having more than 4) will need 1 or 2 nest boxes, and how large I should make it to suit the banties and the Wyandotte. Or should I have one bantie-sized and one big-girl-sized?

 

[teach1rusl]

Well, many will suggest that you'll only need one nest box, but I would go with two (you never know if you'll end up with a nest box hogging broody on your hands). Size doesn't really matter - make it big enough for your GLW...the banties won't care. Or, you could make one long nest box (no divider), maybe 20-24 inches wide, as a community nest box...room enough for two.

 

[Judy]

I would only do one.

There are a lot of reasons you might want separate quarters for you chicken, broodiness being one, or to isolate a bully, injury, quarantine when you lose one and bring in a new one to replace her, etc. I'd use any extra space/scraps to be ready for that. Sooner or later something is likely to come up, and personally, I wouldn't want to use my bathroom.

 

[Vora]

Thanks guys! I think I will do the community nest box suggested above, with enough space for two, and have it built with a removable divider, just in case. ^^ ddawn, I do have a seperate, smaller, unused coop for quarantine and the like, so no worries there!

 

[teach1rusl]

Vora - this is not a great nest box, but it's the "community" nest box in my bantam coop. It actually had a divider in it when I stuck it in there, but my big girls wanted to check out the little girls' digs, and somebody's big butt tilted it (because I just had the div. wedged, not nailed in place) down, so I just removed it. I figure if any of them are snippy while laying side by side (none of the little ones are laying yet, but at 19 and 20 weeks, eggs should be coming soon

), I'll just put the divider back in. It's 12 inches deep and 30 inches long...just to give you an idea of one way you could go.