Need help deciding where to put nesting boxes in my coop

[CurvyCoop]

I'm looking for suggestions on where to best place nest boxes in my coop. I have six hens and one (unintentional) roo. Four of the hens and the roo are large fowl, they're also all still youngsters. Elsie the isbar is about 5 months now and the rest (Biscuit and Crumble the araucanas, Guineveer the buff orpington and Plumette the BCM) are 3,5-4 months old. None of them are laying yet. I also have two newly adopted dutch booted bantam girls, Rose and Lilly. They're a year old and are laying.
At the moment I don't have nesting boxes in my coop because, like many others before me, building the coop took more time than I thought and the chickens got here before it was fully finished.
I put a cardboard box with some nice bedding in it as a sort of placeholder so the bantam girls have somewhere to lay, but they pull their beaks up at it and prefer to lay on the poopboard... because ofcourse they do.

What would be the best place to put nesting boxes?
Pictures below and measurements ( please bear with me, I'm Dutch and used a converter to get the imperial measurements) are as follows:
Coop width: 240cm or 7,87 feet/94,5 inches
Coop depth: 120cm or 3,93 feet/ 47,2 inches
Poopboard width (with edges): 54cm or 1,77 feet/ 21,3 inches
Poopboard height from floor: 43,5cm or 1,42 feet/ 17,1 inches
Roost height from poopboard: 18,5 cm or 0,6 feet/ 7,3 inches
Poopboard space from back wall: 12 cm or 0,4 feet/ 4,7 inches
Poopboard supports are placed 80cm from each side wall or 2,62 feet/ 31,5 inches

Here is the full coop on the outside, storage space on the bottom right, dustbath on the bottom left.

This is what it looks like on the inside, with the inferior cardboard box in the back right corner. The little plastic container is where I keep all the pretty feathers I find.

Another look from a lower perspective showing the supports a bit more clearly

 

[DobieLover]

I would place one nest box on the left wall and one on the right wall right up at the front with the bottom of the box level with the bottom of the poop board. Make the boxes 12"H in the front x 12-14" deep and the back 18"H and put a very sloped tops on them so no one can roost on top. Then put about a 2-3" inch lip on the bottom front edge of the entrance to the nest box to retain the nesting material. Make the sides solid. That will leave the same amount of floor space underneath the nesting boxes that you have underneath the poop board and it won't take up floor space. Two nest boxes should be enough for that size coop.

 

[Ridgerunner]

With six girls 2 nests should be enough.

The way I decide elevation is to first determine floor height with bedding. Then I position the nests. Some people put them on the coop floor, some people put them high enough so that they don't have to bend over to collect eggs. Then the roosts need to be noticeably higher than the nests. Chickens usually like to sleep on the highest point available. You don't want that to be your nests so make your roosts higher than your nests. Since your roosts are already installed and you probably don't want to raise the roosts because of your limited overall height your nests need to be pretty low.

How do you plan to gather the eggs? Where you position them needs to be convenient for you. I personally like to walk into the coop to gather them but my coop is about 2.4 meters x 4 meters and over 3 meters tall, I have room. You don't. The way your doors are set up might make that challenging. Your coop is deep enough that reaching to the back of the coop might be a bit hard. If you can conveniently reach putting them under the droppings board could work. How hard is it to reach into that cardboard box?

Your coop is up against a fence on the right. What does it look like to the left? I'm not sure what your run looks like with the pop door in the door or what kind of outside access you have to the left. The way your roof slopes rainwater will not run off on that side. My thought would be to cut a hole in your coop on that left side and hang two nests out there. Collect them from outside. You probably don't even have to step in the run to get them.

 

[Penpal]

I love the way the wall opens up.

Put an obstacle where they are currently laying and put the eggs in the proper nest box.

 

[Beaker99]

Love the coop. So cute.

 

[CurvyCoop]

With six girls 2 nests should be enough.

The way I decide elevation is to first determine floor height with bedding. Then I position the nests. Some people put them on the coop floor, some people put them high enough so that they don't have to bend over to collect eggs. Then the roosts need to be noticeably higher than the nests. Chickens usually like to sleep on the highest point available. You don't want that to be your nests so make your roosts higher than your nests. Since your roosts are already installed and you probably don't want to raise the roosts because of your limited overall height your nests need to be pretty low.

Absolutely true, I am not at all keen on moving the roosts from where they are now, it was a freaking hassle getting them up there in the first place because I am building this all by myself.

How do you plan to gather the eggs? Where you position them needs to be convenient for you. I personally like to walk into the coop to gather them but my coop is about 2.4 meters x 4 meters and over 3 meters tall, I have room. You don't. The way your doors are set up might make that challenging. Your coop is deep enough that reaching to the back of the coop might be a bit hard. If you can conveniently reach putting them under the droppings board could work. How hard is it to reach into that cardboard box?

What I want in terms of egg collection is relative ease. Preferably I'd open one door, reach in and be able to collect from all nests like that. My coop is indeed pretty deep, mostly because I needed a decent size for the storage space and dust bath underneath, but also so I could use part of it as a brooder or infirmary if I had too without it being cramped. However it is JUST a little too deep for me to reach comfortably. I won't say it's hard to reach into the cardboard box, but it's not quite convenient either. But right now the cardboard box is pushed all the way to the back, it might be more convenient if I pull it forward a little. Which means, I guess, that I could place two nests underneath the poop board and just place them far enough forward that it's easy for me to reach. Just have to learn to be okay with a little bit of useless space behind them then, I suppose.

Your coop is up against a fence on the right. What does it look like to the left? I'm not sure what your run looks like with the pop door in the door or what kind of outside access you have to the left. The way your roof slopes rainwater will not run off on that side. My thought would be to cut a hole in your coop on that left side and hang two nests out there. Collect them from outside. You probably don't even have to step in the run to get them.

To the left it shares a wall with a little shed. The shed is not finished yet but it's also not very big. It's about 1m by 1.20m, give or take a bit. I had originally planned to make external nest boxes in the left wall that would be reachable from inside the shed, but that would take up more than half of the width of the shed space, so it really isn't feasible. Lesson learned as a first time builder: what looks spacious on paper, might be quite cramped irl and vice versa.

My run is another 4 meters long (deep, wide? I guess it depends on perspective) and completely covered.

 

[gtaus]

I put a cardboard box with some nice bedding in it as a sort of placeholder so the bantam girls have somewhere to lay, but they pull their beaks up at it and prefer to lay on the poopboard... because ofcourse they do.

What would be the best place to put nesting boxes?

You have a very nice setup there. Great work. Here are some of my thoughts to maybe improve your setup.

I am not a fan of poop boards. They need to be cleaned regularly (daily, weekly?) and in your setup, that looks like a long reach into the back of the coop to clean the poop boards. I know some people swear by using poop boards, but I'm not one of them.

I would suggest using deep bedding in the coop, take out the poop boards, and just let the poo drop into the bedding below. In my deep bedding setup, I only have to clean out the coop litter twice a year. Most of the chicken poo falls into the bedding and automagically disappears into the litter. If I need to encourage the chickens to scratch and turn over any area of the coop bedding, I'll just toss some chicken scratch in that area and the chickens will turn and freshen up that spot.

If you get rid of the poop boards, then your girls cannot use it to lay eggs on. I would mount some nest boxes just off the deep bedding level where it is most easy for you to reach in and collect the eggs. As long as the nest boxes are lower than the roosting bar, the chickens should not want to sleep in the nest boxes at night.

When I built my coop, I first thought of how easy/hard it would be for me to clean and maintain my setup. At my age, I wanted to build things making it easy for me to raise my backyard flock. If my setup was labor intensive to maintain, I don't think I would enjoy my chickens as much as I do. Whatever changes you decide to make on your setup, consider yourself and if the change(s) make life easier or harder for you with your chickens.

 

[CurvyCoop]

You have a very nice setup there. Great work.

Thank you!

Here are some of my thoughts to maybe improve your setup.

I am not a fan of poop boards. They need to be cleaned regularly (daily, weekly?) and in your setup, that looks like a long reach into the back of the coop to clean the poop boards. I know some people swear by using poop boards, but I'm not one of them.

I actually loooove my poop boards. They're placed a little more forward off the back wall so even for me it's easy to reach and scoop. It's actually easier for me to reach for the poop board than to reach underneath it. Don't ask me why

If you get rid of the poop boards, then your girls cannot use it to lay eggs on.

I see your points, but I put a lot of effort into making it and I really enjoy using it (also taking it back out again is gonna be the worst ) so the poop board is staying.

I would mount some nest boxes just off the deep bedding level where it is most easy for you to reach in and collect the eggs. As long as the nest boxes are lower than the roosting bar, the chickens should not want to sleep in the nest boxes at night.

I put some thought into it, thanks everyone who responded to my question, your suggestions and advice really helped! I just bought two old wooden crates and an old but unused barrel. My plan for now is to saw the barrel in half and, after sanding and general cleaning, use those halves as two nesting "boxes" on the floor level underneath the poop board. I'll be screwing a plank to the front so the barrel halves will be tilted slighty back, the plank also makes sure the barrel halves won't roll around the coop
I think I'll place one of the crates on the right wall, lower than the roost but higher than the barrel halves, giving any girls who want a higher spot the option to do so and hopefully offering a more appealing spot than the poop board for my silly little bantams.
The other crate is going somewhere in the run, as a perch or an outdoor nest (the run is covered so it can't get wet) or maybe as a place for me to store some small supplies in an easy to reach way.

When I built my coop, I first thought of how easy/hard it would be for me to clean and maintain my setup. At my age, I wanted to build things making it easy for me to raise my backyard flock. If my setup was labor intensive to maintain, I don't think I would enjoy my chickens as much as I do. Whatever changes you decide to make on your setup, consider yourself and if the change(s) make life easier or harder for you with your chickens.

Thank you, ease of maintenance is definitely on the forefront of my mind

 

[gtaus]

I actually loooove my poop boards.

I understand. There seems to be two camps on that issue. I hope your chickens will stop laying their eggs on the poop board when you get your nest boxes installed. Please let us know how that works out for you.

You got a number of good suggestions to consider for your setup. Only you can decide which options would work for you. I appreciate you reading the responses, even if you don't plan on using some of them, because knowledge is valuable, and your circumstances may change.

In any case, you have a very nice setup and I can tell you put a lot of effort into it. Congrats.

 

[aart]

Gonna be hard to get nests in there even if you did remove the poop board.