How many nesting boxes per hen?

[Barrdwing]

My birds' favorite boxes are old covered kitty litterboxes (well-scrubbed, believe me). They will stand in line with their legs crossed waiting to use one. But these things are ten to fifteen years old. I've looked at litterboxes on the market currently, and eeyuk, they just aren't the same! If I want more of these I am going to have to go to garage sales, or put up one of the weirdest want ads Craigslist has ever seen.

 

[Chopaka81]

Quote:
I am a newbie to all of this chicken business and have on a coop design. This forum is great. If you do not mind me asking, what are the new demensions of the entries to the nesting boxes? Approximate numbers is good enough.
You mentioned that the new boxes are a little darker, while I notice a lot of people are painting the inside of their coops white. Wonder if a color not as bright might a better choice for color? Please forgive me if this color question is a stupid one.

Thanks, Chopaka

 

[tammyd57]

I have ONE nest box and it's outside the coop. The number of chickens varies, from 2-50, but they all use this one nest box. I've provided more and different boxes, but they never got used. My nest box is about 2' x 4' and can hold quite a few hens at once. It's an old barrel from a huge compost tumbler whose frame broke and never got fixed. The girls claimed it and demanded that I fill it with straw, so I put it in the shade on it's side and filled it halfway with straw and they love it. Some even roost on top of it at night.
If you're really unsure about numbers, just start with one box per 10 hens. If you find eggs on the floor, add a box.

 

[gryeyes]

The general rule is supposed to be one nest box for every four hens. The hens, however, have not read that rule, because I have several coops and the hens prefer to lay where some other hens have laid their eggs. They move around, as if testing different coops. They usually pick one particular nest box in a coop, though. "This is the best one." For a while, they used one small coop with NO nest boxes as a great big nest box and all the girls would lay their eggs there.

Their favorite locations are in large, covered kitty litter boxes on the floor of this or that coop. However, that's usually where one or another of my hens will go broody. So, for the duration of her confinement, the rest of the girls have to lay their eggs in a different location. Two days ago, one of my blue Orpingtons took over a favorite kitty litter box/nest on the back porch for her confinement. So now I find eggs in a variety of nest boxes in various coops.

Makes it just like an Easter egg hunt every single day.

Oh, I have about 25 pullets & hens of all different ages. I can gather as many as 18 eggs a day, 14 large fowl eggs and 4 bantam eggs. There are at least six pullets I know are not yet laying.

 

[wingsofglory]

That compost barrel sounds cute.

I too gave up and made the nest big enough for two hens side by side and a third can squeeze in too. They like it that way. It has a roof and a six inch high board across the front and is deeper than wide to make more privacy.

With the regular size wooden boxes with roofs, they wait in line, grumbling. Even though there are three more identical boxes in a row right next to it.

With the metal milkcrate boxes, it held one hen, and two others would pile in and sit on the bottom hen's head and back trying to lay also while slipping around, and the bottom hen growling.

 

[elmo]

I am a newbie to all of this chicken business and have on a coop design. This forum is great. If you do not mind me asking, what are the new demensions of the entries to the nesting boxes? Approximate numbers is good enough.
You mentioned that the new boxes are a little darker, while I notice a lot of people are painting the inside of their coops white. Wonder if a color not as bright might a better choice for color? Please forgive me if this color question is a stupid one.

Please, there's no such thing as a stupid question, except possibly the one you don't ask.

Once mature, a hen needs to lay someplace, and that necessity makes her quite flexible about nest box requirements. Generally, as long as she can fit in there, and it has some shavings or some kind of bedding, she's likely to accept a wide range of nestbox arrangements. I use lidded plastic totes, a covered kitty litter box, and an old drawer, set on its end. Our hens use all of these.

However, individual hens will sometimes have their own ideas, too. Glinda would dearly love to lay an egg on the roof of the run. I see her eyeing it every time she's free ranging in the yard and the time to lay comes upon her. I've even had to get a ladder and shoo her off the roof a time or two.

Hermione sometimes likes to lay behind the swinging pop door when it's latched inside the coop during the daytime. When I go to close it at bedtime, I'll find her egg behind the door. And every once in a while, somebody (not sure who) lays her egg on the boot tray under the roost that's there to collect night time droppings. Fortunately, I clean the boot trays out every morning so when this happens, the egg is not laid in a pile of poo.​

 

[Chopaka81]

Thanks for the responses. The old kitty boxes and the mulch barrel are clever and cute. I have a small porta kennel that I used to transport my cocker spaniel in, he is gone now and the kennel is unused. I am thinking I could just use it. My wife and I are going to start small 3 or 4 hens and see how this goes. She grew up on a ranch, her chore was to feed the chickens and collect eggs as a young girl. They open ranged thier birds on the ranch, we will not be able to do that living in suburbia.

Thanks, Chopaka

 

[NicInNC]

I have 14 hens and only 3 nesting boxes. They all insist on using just two of the nesting boxes. The one on the right end NEVER gets used and I don't know why because it's the exact same as the others. I also have 2 silkies that are broody 365 days of the year.

Today I went in and one of my EE's was laying on TOP of my silkie and laid the egg that way.

 

[Sprinkles212]

I have 14 hens and only 3 nesting boxes. They all insist on using just two of the nesting boxes. The one on the right end NEVER gets used and I don't know why because it's the exact same as the others. I also have 2 silkies that are broody 365 days of the year.

Today I went in and one of my EE's was laying on TOP of my silkie and laid the egg that way.

 

[andycowboy]

Several years ago I had 11 hens and 10 nesting boxes. They laid in the same 3 boxes every day, so the 1 box every 3-4 hens held with them. I currently have 13 girls about to reach laying age, and I have 8 boxes. Before I boarded them up to stop the playing in them, 3 of them usually had a girl in them - guessing that's how it will be, so that's where I'm going to put the ceramic eggs.

I'm about to start a new coop to raise - on a very small scale - Buckeys. I have 11 pullet chicks, with a near-future plan of adding anothe dozen (hopefully my own hatchlings!), so I including 8 boxes in that henhouse - should be plenty!

In agreement with elmo, the only stupid question is the one you don't ask! One thing I've definitely learned being a BYC member is this: everyone wants to help! Pay attention to suggestions from everyone - newbies to flock masters - and use what you like and what will work for you! I'll repeat what I saw in another thread - the birds don't care! Just provide them with a safe, healthy environment, and they'll be happy!

Good luck with your new hobby!

Have a great evening, and God bless!