Hello from California! New and have a coop question....

Hi and Welcome!!

Waving from SoCal at you here.

It would help if you mentioned what your average summer and winter temps can be, big difference from LA to Lee Vining to Death Valley to Mt Shasta and all in CA

 

I'll be interested to read the other responses you get. Here in San Diego, I'm not too worried about the cold. I put the nest boxes on the opposite wall from the pop door, but not directly across - kinda kitty corner.



Here you can see my assistant testing that the door actually slides up and down You can see some more pictures of the coop on my BYC page if you're interested...

Welcome

 

if you have an airy well lit coop i would put the laying boxes in the darkest place..... usually facing away from the rising sun.

 

just remember that as a predator they can be tricky. Make sure they can not dig in bu lining the base with wire too.

Steve

 

I put my nest boxes along the short wall above where the chicken door is, 2 feet above the floor level, give or take several inches depending on the level of the litter. Then I insulated the floor of the nest boxes so that they have a little arctic entryway. Cold in these parts...

 

my nest boxes are directly behind the door. they are built so the center box is exposed but the 2 side boxes are kinda sheltered by the openning to them, sort of one entrance that accesses the 3 boxes. So far they are only using one of the side boxes. We are a little more temperate in climate in Orange County though.

 

Quote:Maybe... I used the door consistently at the beginning. Being a newbie I was really concerned about predators. But then I was reminded by my family that I had built Fort Knox and it really wouldn't be a problem. We were planning a vacation and I only wanted the pet sitter to have to come once a day, so I started leaving the door open all the time.

That worked fine for several months, but then, one night - late, of course, they started squawking like crazy. I went out to check on them and it seems that since 2 were in the coop and 2 were in the run, they were just screaming for each other. I put the outside 2 inside and shut the door. They calmed down quickly and we all went back to sleep.

Since then I've read that they'll get out of the habit of going inside to roost, so now I go down every night and shut them in. The noise was really the only issue. And it is an issue for us because we've got tons of neighbors nearby and I don't want to stir up any problems.

That's the long story of why I say maybe. They'll probably be safe from predators if the coop is well constructed, but you may have noisy nights if you can't close 'em in which is only a problem if you have neighbors or actually want to sleep through the night.

 

Nest boxes, ideally, should be placed in the dimmest area of the coop. Definitely where sunlight does not shine into them any time of day. (Some ladies lay their eggs fashionably late in the afternoon. Laying eggs is a private affair and light shining into a nest box would be far too public for the dainty, feathered divas. Of course, having just laid an egg, the most perfect egg ever laid by any hen, anywhere, one must announce it to the rest of the flock.)

Regarding the pop door and closing it at night or not... well, it's added protection against sneaky, resourceful predators. And against cold air blowing into the coop. And don't you just feel better with YOUR front door closed at night?