Orpington owners- What size is the interior of your nesting boxes?

[texsuze]

I only have BAs and EEs but re: nest boxes, I use Rubbermaid (or similar) totes without the lid. I cut a "U"-shaped entrance in one of the short ends. Easy to clean--just scrub, rinse and dry. Can be moved to different locations if necessary. A variety of sizes available to fit the coop and the hens. No parasite critters setting up shop in hard-to-clean crevices, no rotting wood, etc. And having had horses, I've always used coastal hay as the nest material.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

My chickens are currently in a large barn using an old wooden work bench as just one big communal nesting box. My current Orpington also uses the wood bench with the others so I don’t know how she would fit in a standard size nesting box. I am also switching over to pretty much all English Orpingtons. I am moving the chickens here in the next month to a converted 16’x60’ lean-to so I can have actual large pens for brooding, egg laying chickens, cockerel pen etc. . Overall it will be much easier to manage, clean and separate. I am at the point where I’m looking to either build or buy nesting boxes. Everything pre-made the nesting box interiors are the standard 12x12”. Now it would be easier just to spend the extra money to have pre-made nesting boxes for each pen. I’m wondering though if 12x12” is going to be too small for my Orpingtons and if I should just build custom nesting boxes instead. If I did make them I was thinking of making the interiors of each box 14” deep by 16” wide. So my questions is to those with Orpingtons what size nesting boxes do your girls use?

No Orps but I have similar sized big girls that sit sideways in a 16wx16hx18-20 tall

 

[HollowOfWisps]

**Update**
We ended up building a two story somewhat communal nesting box. Each “story” is 14” deep by 14” high and 8’ long. With the angle it’s hard to tell, but there is also a 2x4 board on the ledge for the girls to fly up on so it’s easier to get in (the 2x4 is not part of the 14” depth).The back side of the nesting box opens up on the aisle side outside of the pen as well to make it easy access without having to go inside

 

[Poppy Putentake]

Nestiing box size doesn't seem to be extremely critical, but going slightly bigger for big hens does make sense. One question -- why do so many people make the nesting boxes wider than deep? I tend to make them deeper than wide. I've found that they really like one bo that' 11.5"w x 12.5"h x 15"d.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Nestiing box size doesn't seem to be extremely critical, but going slightly bigger for big hens does make sense. One question -- why do so many people make the nesting boxes wider than deep? I tend to make them deeper than wide. I've found that they really like one bo that' 11.5"w x 12.5"h x 15"d.

I chose not to put in dividers so mine it is very wide. My hens all love to cram in side-by-side. Once one of my hens chooses a spot to lay for the day the rest all lay in the same spot. I’ve seen as many as four hens trying to lay together at once.

 

[Australorpfamily]

**Update**
We ended up building a two story somewhat communal nesting box. Each “story” is 14” deep by 14” high and 8’ long. With the angle it’s hard to tell, but there is also a 2x4 board on the ledge for the girls to fly up on so it’s easier to get in (the 2x4 is not part of the 14” depth).The back side of the nesting box opens up on the aisle side outside of the pen as well to make it easy access without having to go inside
View attachment 3494507

I know this is an older post, happen to have any updated photos? How goes it? We have a nest box design with milk crates and are adding a second level to it and I'm debating on making the middle of it one section for a communal type. Our Brahmas get in the milk crates just fine, but we are upping our Brahmas from four to eight lol

In the middle between the frame are four crates. Our plan is to just add six more crates. To give them options.
Thank you