Interior or exterior nesting box?

[flagg6805]

Thanks all for your thoughtful input. Patandchickens def. raised my concerns about building the outside nest boxes. Considering that the coop will be 8 X 8 I think there will be plenty of floor space. Even so I'm gonna raise the nesting boxes 18 inches or so. Are there benefits/drawbacks to having them raised vs. on floor. Should they be raised? I assume the hens will just fly into them?

rick

 

[teach1rusl]

An obvious benefit to them being raised is to conserve floor space. Even though you feel you have plenty of space, your chickens will appreciate as much space as you can give them. And unless they're on the floor, you should place a roost/perch in front of them for the chickens to fly or hop up onto so they can enter the nest boxes. Here's an example...

 

[Radena]

My coop atr this time is small so the nest boxes are exterior. What I dont like about them is several times I have opened the lid and ended up disturbing the hen. I am in the process of getting a bigger coop. It will have interior nest boxes.