Design, redesign, re-think... nest box positioning

[Gypsi]

My coop will be 4 ft by 5 ft. Pretty much it is planned as sleeping quarters for 10 chickens. Short of a major snow storm I don't see me closing the pop door and leaving them inside. And in Texas we don't get THAT MANY snowstorms. *usually*

Because of its small size it was suggested that I put the nest boxes outside the main coop, attached to one of the walls, under the roof. So I extended 3 floor supports from the floor of the coop (which at the moment is a platform, with no walls, the production Reds are sleeping in the old wooden brooder I built, the bard rocks usually roost under the roofed portion of the run on the roost I built there.)

Is there anything wrong with the nest box being at main floor level with just a 1x4 to keep the straw in, off the main coop?

Now my 4x5 coop is only 4 ft tall, but it sits on 24 inch legs so there is plenty of room for the birds to get under it. I mainly split the floor and put the chicken wire & 1 x 2 center in to allow me to get 5 ft wide using a 4x4 chunk of 1 1/4" subflooring that had been sitting in my shed for years. It's so heavy it doesn't need much supporting framing. I can put a piece of ordinary plywood a foot wide over the center to end bottom drafts, maybe make it removable for garden hose cleanouts, good place to let water drain out. I figured that it would be easiest to maintain with a sheet of rubber (45 mil epdm) pond liner covering the whole main floor, but removing it for tidying means nothing permanently mounted on the floors. Since I also need to add vents to the walls, the amount of actual plywood I can attach anything to is limited.

so I planned a series of 2 x 2 perches, maybe 40 inches wide, attached to "pin-hinged" 1x2's, with the perches being maybe 6 or 8 inches apart. And the 1 x 2's mounted on pins between a couple of blocks of 2x2 on an upper wall section. Does anyone remember grandma's bath tub clothes rack - folds up to 2 inches thick? So have perches that can fold up toward the ceiling when I need to get in and clean it out.

A top shelf or perching shelf high, 12" wide, at least a foot below the ceiling would be permanently mounted on the side without the folding perches. Or maybe the folding perches can mount to the anchoring wood below the 12 inch wide shelf. The shelf's purpose? To keep the poop out of the food and water. Put the auto-feeder and in-coop waterer under the shelf.

This is all ok, I think, except what about the nest boxes having to be high. I thought they could be low as long as they were dark and private.

Not going to post a picture, I overhauled it in a major way with colored markers last night.

Gypsi

 

[teach1rusl]

Low nest boxes are perfectly fine. That is a VERY tight space for that number of birds though, about half the space that is typically recommended for comfort for LF.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Is there anything wrong with the nest box being at main floor level with just a 1x4 to keep the straw in, off the main coop?

A lot of people do something pretty similar. I think there is as much variety in what we do for nest boxes as there is in coops. The thing to watch for is that they scratch everywhere and all the time. With the nest box that close to the floor they will scratch the litter and anything else on the floor into the nest. Sometimes they poop a lot on the floor. How much poop they scratch into the nests depends on your mamangement practices and set-up. It may be a problem for you and it may not. When doing your height calculations, don't forget the height of any litter on your floor if you plan on using litter on that pond liner. I'm not familiar with that pond liner so I will not comment on it.

For 10 full sized chickens like yours, you need about 80" total roost length, or about 8" each. It is not that they use 8" each to sleep. They will wind up using a lot less. The extra space is for them to spread their wings when they jump up and to jostle with their buddies for the prime roosting locations. I think you will find the 6" to 8" apart too close. I may be wrong, but it sounds like you may be thinking of putting one directly on top of another. I'd suggest you put them 12" horizontal distance apart. If you put them one on top of the other, you will find the top ones poop a lot on the bottom ones. You really don't want that.

I agree it is great to get the roosts out of the way when you need to. Instead of a swing pinned arrangement, I put 2 x 4 supports at the walls (you can use 2x2's), made my roosts the width of the coop, drilled holes in the ends of the roosts and the supports, and dropped nails in the holes to pin the roosts in place. Mine is a walk in coop so I can easily access it to remove and (more important) replace the roosts. Just thought I'd mention a possible alternative. It might be easier.

Since you are feeding and watering inside the coop, it is not just being used for roosting. They will be spending a fair amount of time in there, which will increase the poop load plus the potential for conflict. It could work out OK if they have continuous access to the outside run but it could also mean a serious problem. I'd suggest feeding and watering underneath the coop in that 2' the coop is raised. I fed and watered outside all this past winter. I'll admit water was a bit of a challenge when the nights dipped into the low single digits and the days never got out of the 20's, but I managed and they kept laying.

Hope this helps. Good luck!!!

 

[Gypsi]

My run is going to be pretty civilized too. It is roofed at one end, with perches under it, and there is still the wooden brooder, which I might improve into a second house. I just didn't have room for a 4x8 structure and good outdoor space, plus said structure should be above ground to let the chickens get under it for shade, etc, etc. I only have 7 birds at the moment, but a friend is hatching some americauna eggs. I promise not to get more than 3 new chicks.....

 

[Gypsi]

Thank you Ridgerunner.
I was thinking of having the perches at an angle, like uphill, 45 degrees when they were dropped down. So no big jump getting up or down - maybe 10 inches apart?

The food and water in the coop are backup supplies. I feed every morning, the food inside is to be sure they don't run out. I don't want an auto-feeder outside for rodents to try to get to.

 

[kcsunshine]

I promise not to get more than 3 new chicks.....

 

[Gypsi]

yeah, the lady also has guinea eggs. But guineas nest in the trees and chase off predators.

 

[elmo]

My nestboxes are on the floor, and it's been working fine. Actually, my nestboxes are moveable, because they're plastic storage bins and a covered kitty litter box. I like using plastic because it's easy to clean and there are no crevices for mites to hide. Mites can be a real problem here in the summertime in North Texas, I'm told.

Right now, I've got broody hens. It's been very convenient having moveable nest boxes. I simply move the nestbox with hen inside into the secure, closed coop at night and lock them up tight. On sunny days, it already gets too warm inside the closed coop, so I just move the hens in their boxes back outside to the shaded runs. The girls squawk a little bit but don't budge.

 

[Gypsi]

Why does a hen brood? Are they sick?

 

[elmo]

Quote:
No, not sick! They're just becoming moms.

"Broody" is when a hen incubates, or broods, eggs.