How do I set up these nesting boxes?

[Eggstravert]

See the photo, not exactly like ours but close....these old school metal nesting boxes were left behind in the barn so we'd like to re-use them but we are curious how they should be setup?

1)Is the idea to hang them on the wall? It looks like there are mounts at the top for that.

2)If so, how high off the floor should they be?

3)do the chickens need a ramp or anything to get up to them or will they just fly up and pop into them?

4)The back is open, was that so you could reach in and get the eggs? Or is it better to close that off to make them feel more secure?

 

[Eggstravert]

Bump...no one?

Someone must have seen these before (or something like them), just want to make sure we get em setup correctly

 

[Howard E]

The boards across the front of the lower set, do those pivot down? It looks like the open backs are mounted flush to the wall?

If so, mount them on the sidewall exactly as shown in the photo. Bottom set.....with the folded down perch......about 15" to 18" above the floor. They fly / hop up to the perch, then sneak inside. If that is 10 boxes, you have enough nests for 40 t0 50 birds.

 

[aart]

Yes, boards across lower nests should pivot down to form perch, they fold up to cover nests if necessary.
Looks like upper nest bank is missing the perch.

Back is open to use less metal material, and they are meant to be hung on a solid wall with holes provided.
Go 15-18" as Howard suggests and you won't need a ramp, unless your coop is very narrow and there's no dismount space.

 

[Eggstravert]

Excellent! Thanks for the replies.

Ours are actually not the ones pictured, they're similar but I just didn't have a photo of them handy. They do indeed have nice fold-down rails on both rows though so that's cool. I'll be sure to take some photos when I complete it.

thanks again