10" wide entry to nesting boxes...

[PertyGertie]

I bought rollaway nest boxes that are communal. No dividers just flaps in front of the box and they all pile in and lay eggs. I had an issue with a chicken that would occasionally eat eggs and get others to join her. I love these new nest boxes. In my last coop I had old cement floors so I bought a rubber stall liner for my flooring. When it came time to spring clean I’d just roll it up and drag it out and hose it. With my new coop I put vinyl flooring down and just tacked it. I use sand in my coops and runs.

 

[Sea Wolf]

I also built my own. I have larger birds so I made my boxes 12 inches square. There has to be room for the bird and the nesting material. I have straw packed in mine and they shuffle it around until they have made a deep depression to lay in.

 

[wolfinator]

5 nesting boxes is plenty for your current needs and coop size, unless you fall victim to chicken math like many here.

I have 45 hens and 2 duck hens that share 5 nests. I have 6 young pullets in the nursery but won't add to flock til old enough. With it being winter, I get 17-26 eggs collectively, most are in 2-3 nests. I collect 2X a day, late morning and dusk. Most of my girls tend to lay between 10am and 4pm oddly. I reuse those plastic cat litter buckets (ducks prefer) and I have soda crates (approx. 11"x16") that were made into a 3 tier display shelving unit from a convenience store. I tried enclosing them on 3 sides but my girls laid eggs on the floor instead, so mine are open on all sides. I use $1 dish pans as as liners for easier cleaning and often find 2 girls in one nest with a 3rd trying to squeeze in with them. I have a main 12X10 coop that 25-30 hens, 5 roosters and 6 ducks sleep in that also houses 2 30# feeders and 1 heated 5 gal. waterer (outside water available too). I will be building an outside attached water area due to mess ducks make, it will be inclosed on 3 sides with a grated floor so I can still use a heated waterer base in freezing weather. I also have a roosting only coop with 2 roosters and the rest of my hens sleep in, there's no food or water kept in it and no nesting boxes. Every morning I watch the ones from my 2nd coop file into the main one. I have a 3rd even smaller coop for transitioning chicks so my others get used to them before going to main or if chosen, the roosting only coop. And yes, I tried getting all to roost in one coop as the blue one was my transition coop originally but some were determined to stay in it so I gave in. I don't lock up mine at night, they have doggie doors on coops and have a 54ftX40ftX4ft pen around coops. My ducks patrol at night and sleep mostly by day. Plus I have 2 brother dogs in a kennel next to their pen as a deterrent. To date I haven't had any problems with predators other than an occasional mouse or frog getting in. I also use 2 baby monitors so I can hear what's going on. Its amazing to hear all the sounds chickens make when no one's around or that my roosters sometimes will crow at 1am or 3 am for no apparent reason. We got used to the night chatter and fall asleep listening to them but the crowing will wake me up.

My main coop, side with window is storage/nursery. All materials used except lumber for frame (spent under $700) is recycled or upcycled - windows (36"x36" in rear of coop), doors, siding, metal roof and interior. Coop in background is no longer used and is getting moved to be converted into our work shed.

My roosting only coop after redoing, still needs metal roof put on.

Before of coop when new, a year later it needed a roof and nesting boxes fell apart.

Right now in my main coop I use ladder roosts but it's difficult to clean under them so I'll be replacing with several long 2x4 roosting bars this spring. Plus it'll free up more floor space.

 

[Scissors65]

Starting with 15 birds. Who knows what's next.

View attachment 2027718

Chicken Math is next lol

 

[rlhagan56]

I haven't read all the posts but I'd love to have you at our place to to work on critter projects because your so funny. Anyhow heres what we did after several attempts (we had chickens in southern AZ but the climate and our property were completely different), we found an 8x8 bully barn for $500, put nest boxes on one side, and yes they ALL use the same nest, hubby used some whiteboard with insulation behind it that is washable. He got it at Home Depot very cheap but it's still good after 12 years. After many methods the best I found was we built a plywood poop board and painted it with the same Porch And Floor paint as the floor which was plywood. Put little edges on it, two sanded 2x4's for perches and filled it with PDZ, and a ramp to the floor. I have a metal scoop that I scoop the PDZ with every day or two it keeps the poop dried which means smell free, low moisture, and no flys. I throw the scooped poop into a 5 gallon bucket. When it's full throw it on the compost pile, PDZ is what we used in our horse stalls and it is beneficial to our garden too. It's effortless to scoop and makes such a difference. Our run is also covered 16 x 16. I can keep up to 22 hens in that set up. I didn't mean to have sentences run on forever or make this sound complicated. Through the years this setup is low cost and clean. In summer I have horizontal nipples on a 25 gallon barrel on a milk crate, in winter a smaller 5 gallon food safe pail on a cookie tin sitting on a milk crate which sits on a hot water pan in case of drips.

 

[rlhagan56]

Here's some photos when it was first done. My husband built the small one to match for chicks with one side of the run for them till they grew.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I would get more chickens but I have heard my chickens may not except them .

It might take some work but if you have the patience and the space for it, no reason you can't add more birds.

Your run isn't the largest so that might be a sticking point during integration. Not sure how big your coop is either. Ideally you want to set things up so the birds can see each other and get used to each other before being able to physically interact.

 

[CarolineM]

We've had the same experience. We have 16 chickens and 4 nesting boxes and they have a favorite one but use two.

 

[CarolineM]

We keep our babies separated in their own (smaller) coop right next to the adult pen separated only by mesh so they see and smell each other and integrate them with the adults at or after they are 16 weeks old. They're nearly full grown by then. We've had great success without any or minimal bullying. If they have plenty of space and places to hide and run off to, they should be fine.

 

[aart]

Put a fake egg in all the nests and they will all be used.