Black Australorp next boxes

[LD Jackson]

First of all, I am glad I found this site. Lots of great information on here.

I am in the process of converting a pigeon loft to a chicken coop for 10 Black Australorp hens. The way I had to build it originally, it is longer than it is deep. You can see pictures of what it looked like for the pigeons at the link below. I am thinking the roost should be on the back wall where all of the perches are now, so that leads me to my question about the nest boxes. I was wondering how well individual nests would work, possibly stacked where you see the nest bowl and water? Just trying to get some ideas and opinions.

EDIT: Okay, because I am a new member, I can't post the url to the Pigeon Talk thread that contains the pictures. (I can't blame you for that, spam is a real problem nowadays.) If you have the time and inclination, do a Google search for Pigeon Talk and search in the Loft Design forum for a thread by DynaBMan (that's me) called Loft Completed. The pictures are in that thread. If that doesn't work, I'll try to figure something else out.

 

[LD Jackson]

Here is the link to the pictures.

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/f38/loft-completed-27252.html

 

[Batty about Banties]

That would work, or you could put it a couple on the wall you have the pidgeon roosts on. They only need to be 12X12 and for 10 BA's I think 3 or 4 nest boxes? Someone will correct me if I am wrong.

Nice "coop" by the way!

 

[Ms.Frizzle]

idk if the foaming sealer is at the bottom at all, but I've had chickens peck/eat that before. : P I say that your idea for where to put the nesting boxes is a good idea. How many rows/collums do you plan on putting in? Oh, also, for the loft area, do you have a power hoseish thing to clean it? It looks hard to get into with a scrub brush, and chicken poop doesn't fall throw as nicely as small pidgeon poop. What made you decide to switch from pidgeons to chickens?

 

[LD Jackson]

Ms.Frizzle :

idk if the foaming sealer is at the bottom at all, but I've had chickens peck/eat that before. : P I say that your idea for where to put the nesting boxes is a good idea. How many rows/collums do you plan on putting in? Oh, also, for the loft area, do you have a power hoseish thing to clean it? It looks hard to get into with a scrub brush, and chicken poop doesn't fall throw as nicely as small pidgeon poop. What made you decide to switch from pidgeons to chickens?

Well, I am thinking 4-5 nest boxes, but that could change. I figure two columns stacked with two in each column. I think the beauty of that would be the fact that I could move them when I needed to. The floor itself is solid and I just scrape and sweep it to keep it clean. I plan on using pine or cedar shavings for the bottom when I move the chickens into the main portion of the loft/coop.

As for switching from pigeons to chickens, my wife grew up around chickens and loves them. Also, no one but me would even think of eating the pigeon eggs, so I figured I might as well switch to chickens and have really fresh eggs to eat.​

 

[LD Jackson]

Quote:
My father-in-law has access to some used 10-hole commercial nests, but I think that would be too many for what I want, plus take up a lot of extra room.