We created the coop, now the nesting boxes....???

[way2cross]

I'm still confused. The hens are not turned out into my open yard. They will be penned in.

But my question is about where they sleep at night. As you can see in my picture we did not close in the shed/ it's covered by three sides. Now if I put the rabbit cage and dog house in there, making a divided room in each with shavings (4 boxes) , can I shut them up in there for the night to protect from predators??

One poster said not to encourage them sleep in the nesting boxes. Well where do they sleep as they grow and become layers if I don't have a barn for them??

Are we going to have to make the effort of closing in the whole end of that shed or will they sleep in their shelters (dog house and rabbit cage) provided they are big enough?

Thanks for the help.

Btw, the rabbit cage is plenty tall enough to put a roost in the top part of it.

 

[HenHappy]

Okay...lets see...looking at the picture the top is open...racoons can get in there no prob. Even an owl could get in. foxes and others can get over your fencing easily. drafts are another problem. chickens can get sick, especially little ones. I have nesting boxes on shelves inside the coop and they perch on the edges inbetween to sleep. I'm expanding this spring to make my coop taller so I can include some proper perches. Take a look at the coop design threads to see what they need. Only you can judge the predator risk you have in your area...but I would really hate to hear you have gotten up one day and your babies were gone. One of my girls is a rescue from someone who lost 20 or so chickens one nite from racoons...they actually pryed the chicken wire off the side of the coop, killed them all, except for my Lucky, ate afew heads and left. She had no idea it even happened till she went out in the morning. Prevention is they way to go I think. Does that explain it better?

 

[way2cross]

Yes the dog house and rabbit cage are big and will have a latch.
We'll lock them up at night and they'll be safe and warm. And the coop will be locked up too. At sunrise we'll let them out.


As for during the day- we still have some small holes to patch and
the netting to put on the top. They love the coop during the day even now when they are young.
It is way to hot in that rabbit cage in the shed during the day. And they like to run and jump, plus my kids get to play with them all day.

 

[silkiechicken]

As long as nothing can get into their cage they will be fine and pick their favorite sleeping spots. Don't be too surprised if the hens pick one laying box they like the best and only lay in there while sleeping on top of the dog house in the pen. My chickens all fight for one corner in one of the laying houses and prefer to sleep outside on top of their laying houses. Silly things if you ask me. When I had a dozen hens, it was amaizing how I'd get a clutch of eggs over filling one corner of the box. It's on the ground so no worries about anything rolling off and hitting the ground. Even caught them sitting on top of each other to lay an egg even though there were three other corners and two other houses they could lay in.

 

[urbanhomesteader]

One poster said not to encourage them sleep in the nesting boxes. Well where do they sleep as they grow and become layers if I don't have a barn for them??

They sleep on the roosts. You should put a roost in the dog house if its tall enough. Like this coop

just without the nest box.
You can put the nest box outside in the shed in a protected area. Nest boxes are just for laying eggs. They do that in the daytime.


Since you do have most of the structure already I would HIGHLY recomend closing it up for their own safety. Then you could make the kind of roosts that leans against the wall looks like a ladder. Easy as pie.Or you could make one that is free standing like this.

And closing it off would make it less drafty too.

And you could use the dog house as the nest box.


Even with hanging netting over your run a racoon or other preditor can and probably will get in at one point. Closing the shed off would be a second line of defence. The dog house is fine as protect/coop but I don't recomend using a rabbit cage as a coop. Racoons will reach through the wire and pull out a chickens head or even a leg and eat it. I had a girlfriend who lived in an apartment and had her rabbit on a second story balcony. A racoon had UNLATCHED

the door and was pulling her rabbit OUT of the cage. Luckily she saw the movement out of the corner of her eye and got out there fast enough to save her bunny.

I hope this helps/makes sence.

 

[way2cross]

Thanks for the picture urbanhomesteader, that's given me a clue. My rabbit cage is similar. We just might build a second one that's larger and lock them up in there at night. If it's cold, which won't really be a problem til next winter, will the wire cage part be toocold for them? Creating a draft underneath and around?

We don't want to have to close in that lean to. arrr

Maybe we'll just have to.

 

[urbanhomesteader]

No problem! I am a visual person ,sometimes I just don't get it untill I see a picture.

Since you are in Georgia you don't have to worry about extream cold very often. I would say keep the coop in the most sheltered corner of the leanto and maybe tack up a blanket to keep out drafts/keep warm air in. If the leanto roof leaks maybe a shower curtain will work for draft protection. Something like this.