Do not have only ONE nest box!

[Ted Brown]

I was attempting to be lighthearted but also a bit concerned that some few newbies might take the concept at face value. As mentioned I have seen many coops on BYC, usually small, with 4 or more nests when less would suffice given stated goals. I recently saw a post that claimed 1.6 Sq ft of ventilation in an 8'x4' coop with 4 birds was sufficient after being told 1 Sq ft per bird was needed. Same person intended to close their windows in the winter. Also I have never had a broody bird.

@Riverbend Farms - apologies I did not mean to offend.

 

[Altairsky]

Half of my flock goes broody and is allowed to raise their babies. Therefore one nest per chicken is the minimum amount.
I also hate to see the low ranking chickens waiting in line for hours to lay their egg.

 

[Riverbend Farms]

I was attempting to be lighthearted but also a bit concerned that some few newbies might take the concept at face value. As mentioned I have seen many coops on BYC, usually small, with 4 or more nests when less would suffice given stated goals. I recently saw a post that claimed 1.6 Sq ft of ventilation in an 8'x4' coop with 4 birds was sufficient after being told 1 Sq ft per bird was needed. Same person intended to close their windows in the winter. Also I have never had a broody bird.

@Riverbend Farms - apologies I did not mean to offend.

Yes I understand. I could see some new people taking it as fact.

 

[MapleLaurelFarms]

Do not just have one nesting box, even if you only have 2 or 3 chickens. At least one will go broody, take the nesting box and scream at all the other chickens...

At least 2 is absolutely necessary because if a hen is on the nest laying, the other lady/ladies will have somewhere to lay besides the coop floor.

I have 4 boxes for my 8-15 girls (varies according to the season), and they use 2-3 fairly consistently. Of course, they have their almighty *favored* nest (that often changes for no reason) and sometimes a hen will pace around waiting to use the favored nest when someone else is in it. However, they tend to give that up and rush to another box if urgency requires it.

When you gotta go, you gotta go.

 

[londrajs]

Do not just have one nesting box, even if you only have 2 or 3 chickens. At least one will go broody, take the nesting box and scream at all the other chickens for daring to come in the coop and scare them into laying eggs in the run. I have a coop w/ 3 nesting box and when THAT one OEGB hen goes broody, she scares everyone else into laying in the run otherwise they get screamed at and chased. (She is now in jail for it) If you have 15 chickens, have 30 nesting boxes, it still won't be enough. They will only use 3 and when 3 chickens inevitably get broody and take them, they won't lay in the other nesting boxes.

My three girls (Jersey Giants) have 5 nesting boxes, beautiful ones. They all want to be in the same one. They work it out but that is where they are. I have even seen one sitting on top of another. I also have a raised dog house. All filled with chopped straw. They are who they are!

 

[TexasBlues]

I have been thinking on a solution to this for a while now, not because of broodies but for higher pecking order birds screaming and kicking lower pecking order birds out as a power trip. The only thing that I can come up with so far is a rollaway nesting box, wide enough to take 5 or 6 hens, that has no dividers in it.

I have a big roll away without dividers and they will still want to use only one corner of the box and will double up on top of each other.