How many nesting boxes for 5 hens?

I would go with 3 if you have the space, everyone on this site ends up with more chickens eventually.

 

We have 6 chickens and 3 nesting boxes. They pretty much only use 2 at a time. There has never been eggs in all 3 boxes on any given day, only 2. They use all 3 eventually though. I've always wondered how/why they choose certain ones.

 

From an industry standard, technical aspect 1 nest box per 4 to 5 hens. So maybe 2 for you? I have 3 boxes for 9 birds and they use all three. It should be good for a dozen birds. If the house went to a capacity of 24 birds, I'd add a second bank of nests above the first.




Unknown to me, the pop door blew shut the other day, blocking entrance for a few hours in the morning. What caught my eye was 4 birds doing laps around the house, trying to get in. They were looking pretty anxious. Once the door opened, three of them piled in to the three nests and since mine are 14" x 14", the 4th bird joined the one in the middle for duels.

One of my markers for clueless construction is how many nest boxes per bird. The all time worst I've seen so far was a 4' x 4' coop built on TV by the buys on Good Old House. It was suited for maybe 4 birds at most, yet they installed a bank of 6 nest boxes. That coop was a train wreck all around. A well built train wreck, but a poorly designed train wreck just the same.