Hen boxes

[carol jo]

I have 6 Australorps 20 weeks old and looks like I messed up with my laying boxes. When I built a hen box I made it 6' long & covered. The problem is I built it with 3" deviders instead on making them 6 individual boxes. All 6 squeeze into one end of box. So i remade the boxes to be 6 separate & they still sqeeze into one. Separated them into 3 lg but still all squeeze together. Coop is completely inclosed. Any problem with this behavior or will they spread out once they start laying?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

So what I'm reading is that they're sleeping in the nest box?
If so, that's a habit you want to prevent. The roost needs to be significantly higher than the nest. Close the nests off in the afternoon to break the habit and force them to find a new place to sleep.

As for the nests, you don't need 6 boxes for 6 hens. 2 is probably about right. You can take out all the excess and make more room in the coop.
Most small flocks will usually share the same nest.

 

[Den in Penn]

I got a ten nest box set for nothing and put it in a coop that can hold twenty four hens comfortably. Most days they use only three or four of those. They have their favorite box of the moment which sometimes hold most of the days eggs. That favorite box can and does change from time to time. Most hens like to lay where someone has already laid. So chances are yours will like to use the same nest and the rest of the space will get little used until some whim causes them to move to another. Oh and the recommended number is a nest box for four hens.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

So what I'm reading is that they're sleeping in the nest box?
If so, that's a habit you want to prevent. The roost needs to be significantly higher than the nest. Close the nests off in the afternoon to break the habit and force them to find a new place to sleep.

As for the nests, you don't need 6 boxes for 6 hens. 2 is probably about right. You can take out all the excess and make more room in the coop.
Most small flocks will usually share the same nest.

X 2 - this isn't an issue of a defect in the nest boxes,, but rather a matter of them having a bad habit in sleeping in the nest boxes.