How to situate the nesting Boxes

[Chicks Galore3]

I am going to make three nesting boxes together (so it'll be a three foot long thing). To keep things short, I need to know if seven inches is too high to have the nesting boxes? Let's see, how do i explain this.....The frame has a 4x4" base and we are going to put a seven inch board behind it and make the frame of the nesting box behind that, on 2x4's so they'll have to hop on the 4x4, and then hop over the 3" lip to the nest, which will be about 3" below, but there will be bedding so it'll be more like 2". Get what i'm saying? I hope so, 'cause that was alot to type with frozen fingers! LOL (i just came in from building....and it's kind of cold out!)

 

[claudicles]

So long as it is lower than the roosts it should be fine. Your girls will be able to get into it easily and shouldn't take to sleeping in it at that height.

 

[Rockyriver]

7 Inches from the floor?
That sounds to low to me, get it up to at least 1.5-2 feet is what I do. I hate bending over to get the eggs out of the box, so the higher the better.
However I do have a rooster that is so fat he tries to roost in the boxes. So what do I know.

 

[joan1708]

check out the hencam at hencam.com I think. Their nest boxes are pretty low ~ 1 foot off the ground.

 

[Chicks Galore3]

Wow ok i didn't know you had them up so high! but we are getting heavy breeds so they won't be able to jump up very high, so as to have the roosts higher then the boxes the roosts would have to be HIGH. As for gathering eggs, i am going to have a flip-top roof on them.

 

[terryg]

I'm the HenCam person, and yes, you can see my nesting boxes on my two live-streaming webcams. www.HenCam.com. I happen to like the metal boxes - easy to clean and they don't harbor mites. But, it's certainly cheaper to build your own. On my cams you'll see one set of nesting boxes are up high. They were a second tier - but the ones below were removed and put into the other coop. I'd never have boxes that high again because the hens like to roost in them. The nesting boxes in the big barn are low and the hens never roost there. Much tidier! If you are short of floor space (a minimum of 4 square feet per hen) then make sure your boxes are high enough that the hens can walk around under them - about 12 inches. If you mix bantams and large birds, have the nesting boxes about 8 inches off the ground - the bantams will hide under the boxes and the big birds can't bother them there. Also, although I like a sunny coop, hang the boxes where they'll be out of direct sunlight. Hens like to lay where it's shadowy. One other thing - don't give your new birds access to the boxes until they are about a week away from laying. That way they won't learn to sleep in them. Put in dummy eggs and they'll figure out what they're for.

 

[Daisy8s]

Wow ok i didn't know you had them up so high! but we are getting heavy breeds so they won't be able to jump up very high, so as to have the roosts higher then the boxes the roosts would have to be HIGH. As for gathering eggs, i am going to have a flip-top roof on them.

--
I have a Light Brahma. She's a big girl and she can easily hop 18 to 24 inches. In fact, she regularly flies over my 4 ft fence by flying up to land on top of the fence post and then hopping down to the other side (but this requires full wing spread which wouldn't be as comfortable inside the coop). I read all over this post about big birds being unable to fly and so I thought my 4 ft fence would be sufficient. Wrong!!

Since you're getting chicks make a ladder roost. Put the bottom roost 6 inches off the floor and narrower in diameter so the little chicks can get to it as their first roost. Then, increase the height and diameter of the roosts as you go up--staggering their placement like stair steps (12 inches up and 12 inches back). They will hop up the roosts like going up stair steps or a ladder.

My nesting boxes are equal in height to my second-from-the-top roost pole so the birds step from this roost pole into the nesting boxes. But, they all sleep/roost on the top roosting pole so I don't have too much of a problem with them roosting/pooping inside the nesting boxes. My nesting boxes start out being about 24 inches off the floor but now, because I use the deep litter method and only clean out in the spring, they are only about 12 inches off the floor.

 

[OldGuy43]

Here's mine:



The bottom of the boxes and the roost pole are both almost 2' above the ground. The top of the boxes are about 3' above ground level, and as you can see they get up there to roost some nights. I have Red Sex-Links and all have one wing clipped so my answer is no, not to high.