Communal Nest Boxes, Yay or Nay?

[Mrs. K]

hmmm, what is the advantage of a communal nest? I inherited an old coop, had 4 wooden traditional nests, about 10? inches wide, maybe 11 deep, so I always used that.

I have seen old timer nest also about that size. I have seen communal nests, but I didn't like them, I thought you might get a lot of eggs broke.

So I vote single nests.

Mrs K

 

[thecatumbrella]

hmmm, what is the advantage of a communal nest?

The argument I've seen is that chickens will wrestle over a single nest box. Now the nest box is huge, so multiple birds can use it at once.

But I can say, even with my limited knowledge, that this isn't how chickens work. Mine fight over a 6" space on the roost bar. They will absolutely fight over a preferred "side" of the communal nest box.

 

[chickengr]

don't use cardboard as it would attract mites.

 

[thecatumbrella]

don't use cardboard as it would attract mites.

It would just be temporary, but good to know!

 

[RubelliteRose]

My hens have decided that I need both communal and individual nests. We currently have 10 laying hens and 6 individual boxes divided between 2 coops that everyone can access. Only 1 of my oldest hens lays in the 3 boxes in the small coop. The others rotate between the 3 boxes in the large coop and 3 different spots in the shavings on the floor. A few days ago, everyone was laying on the floor to the right of the boxes. Yesterday, everyone laid on the floor to the left of the boxes. Today? who knows? maybe back to the nest boxes

 

[Cheekychook12]

My hens are too full of themselves to let anyone else in the nest box no matter how big it is
So I think I’ll vote single boxes even though they only use one of them