You will be fine with two nests and five hens. All the chickens don't always lay at the same time. For various reasons most are laid in the morning but I still get eggs in the afternoon. So they are usually spread out some. Most of mine finish in about a half hour but I had one that took 3 hours to lay her egg and leave he nest.
My nests are bigger than yours, 16" x 16". It is fairly common to find 3 hens in one nest at the same time. They don't always wait if the nest has a hen on it, mine often lay together. I've seen photos on here with two hens in a nest together where the nest was the size of yours. I remember one photo where the nest was so small one hen was sitting entirely on top of another. This is one reason when you have a broody hen hatching with the flock you mark the eggs and remove any that don't belong after the hens have laid for the day. Hens will often join a broody hen on her nest and lay an egg.
The hen above that took three hours was a nest hog. She would not share her nest with another hen, a pain. So yeah, they don't always share. When it came time to decide which hens needed to be replaced by new pullets, I felt that the nest hog hen had volunteered her spot in the flock.
The bigger the nest the more hens it can handle. My 16" nests can handle more than your 12" nests. There is a special nest design called a community nest that is 24" x 48" that can handle 24 laying hens. They don't work well for broody hens but i believe Joel Salatin used them for his laying hens, or at least used to.
My nests are bigger than yours, 16" x 16". It is fairly common to find 3 hens in one nest at the same time. They don't always wait if the nest has a hen on it, mine often lay together. I've seen photos on here with two hens in a nest together where the nest was the size of yours. I remember one photo where the nest was so small one hen was sitting entirely on top of another. This is one reason when you have a broody hen hatching with the flock you mark the eggs and remove any that don't belong after the hens have laid for the day. Hens will often join a broody hen on her nest and lay an egg.
The hen above that took three hours was a nest hog. She would not share her nest with another hen, a pain. So yeah, they don't always share. When it came time to decide which hens needed to be replaced by new pullets, I felt that the nest hog hen had volunteered her spot in the flock.
The bigger the nest the more hens it can handle. My 16" nests can handle more than your 12" nests. There is a special nest design called a community nest that is 24" x 48" that can handle 24 laying hens. They don't work well for broody hens but i believe Joel Salatin used them for his laying hens, or at least used to.
