Do I need seperate boxes?

[JodyJo]

I just moved my nesting boxed down to about 24" off the coop floor, my hens are not laying yet, but were roosting in them, I hope this prevents this, otherwise I will have to block them off...now, do I need to have individual nesting boxes for my hens, or is one large "trough" good enough?

 

[FireTigeris]

Quote:
I have lots of boxes 10, and 24 chicken - some under laying age (2-4), some (2) roosters... often they only use two boxes, sometimes three...

 

[Judy]

One large trough is probably fine, depending how many hens you have. A rule of thumb often given here is one nest to four hens -- but they generally all have a favorite or two and don't use the others.

 

[JodyJo]

Quote:
I have 16 pullets...one large trough, about 6-6.5 feet long...I have the dividers, I just didn't put them back in, I guess I will see if they are ok with what I did...I just didn't know if they "had" to have separate boxes..I know they tend to favor one, and can pile a few hens into one!

 

[triplepurpose]

You should be fine. I have about twenty good layers right now, and five nest boxes, but they mostly only use two of those boxes.

 

[wava1vaughn]

Hi from Ga. I had 8 nest boxes in my first coop the 10 girls all used the end box. It was funny seeing 4 hens stacked on top of each other with 7 empty boxes next to them. Happy nesting.

 

[Erebus]

I have 13 girls of laying age and a bunch of juveniles. We have one regular sized nest box and one double the width.
They prefer the regular sized one and I'm getting about 5 a day in the regular one and maybe 1 or 2 in the wider one.

I think they think a regular nest box is more private. My FIL assures me that hens like to lay some quiet, private place (like humans on the toilet

)