Nest Boxes 101

I thought having numerous layers was not in my future. Then ‘Ready’ my stray debeaked () hen came into my life. My two 8yo hens will not accept her, I have tried everything I knew & read here.
So what does a loving crazy old lady do? Get chicks, obviously . The chicks are being raised where Ready sees them and they all can eat from one spot with chicks protected.
Goodness, I’m sure taking the long way to get to your fabulous article!
I am going to put curtains on my nesting boxes, so simple, so easy, so awesome

Just the perfect information I was looking for. Going out there with a staple gun and fabric asap.

Very helpful. I like having dimensions by size of bird. I liked the variety of nest box options. I liked the curtains and explanation of why those are important to the birds (and us). Excellent photos to help illustrate all your points. Very helpful and useful. thank you!

Thank you for writing this! The info on egg eating is especially helpful. I have pointed three people to it in the last 24 hours.

I really like the curtain idea. Everything here is so informative for a neophyte like myself.

Thank you.

I can't say enough about curtains. Though, I still will see a line of chickens waiting outside the curtain for a chicken to leave the nesting box, no matter that there are 5 other boxes to choose from. Also, I have had 2 chickens nesting in the same box together at the same time! They all seem to favor the same nesting box, especially if there is an egg there already. I have 9 chickens and six curtained nesting boxes. Only 2 ever get used.
And when I had a hen go broody, she would roll the eggs from the nesting box where they were laid and claim them for her own!

I thought it was a well written fun read with lots of useful information and great pics to boot. Personally, whether or NOT the curtains and eggs are "essential"... they WERE stated as accessories and opinion related to a specific challenge that MANY face with chicken keeping. Wouldn't be the same article without that information. Nice job TwoCrows.

While I read this article, it gave me some good ideas to stop the bullying at the nesting boxes. We have 11 layers and eight boxes, but they only want to use three of them. One of the girls (Gracie) steals all the eggs into one box and just loves on them until Spankie screams at her to get out. So what am I missing...curtains. Gonna do this tomorrow.View attachment 1613204 View attachment 1613205

Great info, here. Lots of solid information with personal experiences included. Nicely done.

Very thorough article on nest boxes. A must read!

All the bases are covered on this article. Good pictures too!