10" wide entry to nesting boxes...

[ckn-hrtd]

Our chickens used to lay in only a very few "preferred" nesting boxes. And if another one was there, they would sit there and squalk for 45 minutes.
When I put a couple golf balls in each nest, they spread out. Now there is only one nest they seldom use. Guess there's a method to their madness.

 

[wolfinator]

Chickens are so addicting. My neighbor moved and left their chicken . I adopted them and bought a chicken house and a heater . Its only 4 chickens and a Rooster. I am retired and my chickens are exactly what I needed to fill my days . I bought a dog lot 10x10x6 high. I am going to add to it this spring . I would get more chickens but I have heard my chickens may not except them .

I've just started raising chickens in 2015 with 18 bantams rescued from dire conditions. By March 2017, I had lost 2/3 due to their prior history but was wanting to get standard chickens. My son bought me 16 chicks, 2 ended up being roosters that I initially raised in the house. I bought a coop just for them to keep them separated. Then a friend gave me 6 of hers that were same age as my 16, I added another coop, so now I had 3 pens. 2018, 23 more chicks but I decided to introduce them to the 6 in pen #3 adding a 4th coop. They had a few tiffs but after a week, they established pecking order and things were good. Oh by the way, I was given 6 ducks, 3 more bantams and rescued 6 adult hens in the meantime that were successfully added between pens #1 & #2. I also had divided my largest coop/pen so I could separate 5 of my now 11 roosters into a rooster pad. It took a week or two but eventually the new pecking order was established in both pens. We had a very rainy summer and my coops were constantly being flooded. I was down to using 2 pens but all had a common large fenced area where I was slowly introducing all together with very few problems. My boyfriend and one son decided I needed a new larger common coop and told me to design what I wanted. So in November 2018, they built a 12X10 coop with a 6X10 storage room. We moved all 56 hens, roosters and 3 ducks at 2am to their new home. I had sold 3 ducks and rehomed 3 roosters during the summer and lost a several from flooding. There was a usually dry creek bed about 20 feet away that had never rose that high as long as my boyfriend could remember his 30 years there but it did that summer. The new coop is 50 feet from the creek, has a 54x40 pen. I have now in 2020, 45 hens, 7 roosters and 5 ducks sharing 2 coops with 6 pullets to be introduced mid-March to main coop.

So with all that said, it is possible to introduce new chickens to your existing flock but it takes time and there will be fighting as they establish pecking order. Some add new ones at night, others place them in the run, I've done it both ways and didn't lose any during the introduction. Yes, I have lost a couple roosters from fighting but that over a year later. I've got photos of my coops in another reply in this thread.

 

[rlhagan56]

Just wanted to say that vinyl on the floor will be slippery and especially with chicks they need a solid flooring not slick or they will all kinds of problems with their legs. We tried it and it's worse when you try to put shavings on it.

 

[aart]

Just wanted to say that vinyl on the floor will be slippery and especially with chicks they need a solid flooring not slick or they will all kinds of problems with their legs. We tried it and it's worse when you try to put shavings on it.

It can be slippery, especially with fresh shavings,
but in 6 years I've had no leg injuries, chicks or adults.

 

[Panhandler80]

Looks good to me, Panhandler80. I built a 4'x 8' closed in coop for my 12 and added nesting boxes, similar to yours, afterwards, but I have 4 boxes, 10"x 12".

Yeah. Pretty similar. I'm going to have a permanent roof on the nesting boxes and will access the eggs by dropping the vertical surface. The floor surface inside the nesting boxes is also all the same level with no lip on the outward facing edge. WIth this set up I'll be able to just drop the door (hinges on the bottom and no need to prop it open while getting eggs) AND it will be really easy to sweep out into wheel barrow for compost barrel.

 

[perkolator]

Coop looks good, I love overbuilt stuff haha!

I setup my coop with 6 nesting boxes for 14 hens (3 in coop, 3 in run) - they randomly choose the one they'll lay in, but have definitely been using all of them. I did 3 across a 48" wide dimension, so each box is roughly 15"x15" footprint inside, about 16" tall - they have just enough room to get in and turn around.

My floor/walls are OSB painted with like 5 coats of semigloss paint that I had laying around. I was going to use 1/8" thick plastic wall sheeting (after getting inspired by Carolina Coops' HDPE interiors), but the cost was too high. I also considered buying elastomeric roof paint, but decided to just use what I had as it was better than our old coop and I can always paint/add materials later down the road. Old coop is bare OSB floor/walls and deep bedding - after 20+ years the OSB is still in great condition and not rotted; I'd guess without deep bedding it may have rotted due to funk soaking directly into the wood instead of bedding.