When my dad was in the Navy, (late 50s-early 60s) he said when they were getting ready to ship out and stocking the ship, there would be pallets upon pallets, 10s of thousands of eggs. They were a staple because they were able to be kept for so long.
I keep mine only in the run for a couple reasons. I live where the weather is good all the time so the girls never have reason to be in the coop except for roosting and laying. When we do get rain, part of the run is weather proof so it stays dry(and shaded in the summer sun). Also, the run is...
So we got our first chickens 4 years ago. We started small with only two, Lucy(RIR) and Ethel(Buff Orpinton). There are only two of us and how many eggs do we really need??? At the time, we bought just a tiny prefab coop and added a run(aka, the Hen Pen) that was completely enclosed and predator...
Thank you all for your thoughts ...all super great ideas. And Acre4me thanks for the thought on the broody business. One of my girls goes broody about twice a year and gets quite crabby. I'm leaning towards the two box plan now...even though they'll probably all cram into the same small box!
I'm building a new coop (3x5.5ft) and can't decide if I want to make one large nest box (12x36in) or 2 smaller ones (12x18in). I currently have 2 hens that are almost 4 years old. They have been known to squeeze together into the one small box they have now and not mind. I will be getting 2 more...