Ideas for nesting box....dog house.

[way2cross]

I have quite a large wooden dog house that is of no use to the dog. It has a shingled roof on it.

Could this be used to house nesting boxes for eight hens? How would I do it? Would the chickens walk though the front door and find a box to lay their eggs? Would I put legs on the dog house to get it up off the ground and then a ramp to it??

Thanks!

 

[thechickenfarmer]

How big is this dog house? Standard size chickekns need 3-4 sq feet of space each but bantams are less. 3 or 4 hens can share one nesting box. I put fake eggs in my nesting boxes and I've only had 2 eggs layed on the floor since they began so, yes they should use the boxes. A roost of some kind would also be good to add. I would put it up off the ground for sure and have a ramp. You will need a door to keep them safe and also ventilation of some kind, you could drill holes at the top. Hope that helps.

 

[silkiechicken]

Depending on how large is large for the dog house you can put in a divider inside and just line it with hay. You might want an easy way to get at the eggs so a hatch in the back would be useful. You could put legs on it if you want but my birds just lay their eggs on the floor in one corner of the attached hutch to their cages.

 

[way2cross]

Thanks! And Chicken Farmer what part of CT are you in? I grew up in Branford, now I'm in the deep south.

 

[thechickenfarmer]

I'm in the North west corner, in Litchfield county.