How do you use the nest? What’s its purpose? If it’s just for laying eggs then about anything will work. I’ve used a 7-1/2” x 11-1/2” kitty litter bucket. You’ve heard about the opposite, the community nest box but I haven’t used that. Both of those are unsuitable for me, by the way. I’ve used open topped and almost totally enclosed. If you have egg eaters you might want a roll-away nest so there may be some special considerations.
I let my broody hens hatch in the nests. That’s why the cat litter bucket (bucket, not bin) is unsuitable for me. The first baby chicks that hatch often like to crawl up on Mama’s back. If she is sitting too close to the edge, they might miss the nest and fall all the way to the floor when they fall off. I need a nest big enough so she is not close to the edge. Having it enclosed and with a top helps too.
A broody hen is why I would not use a community type nest either. During the incubating phase wouldn’t be too bad but I would not want her to hatch in one. Too much of a chance for problems.
If ease of clean-up is such a chore for you about the best thing I’ve seen is to build a frame to hold a bin or bucket that can be lifted out. A cat litter bin works great, you can often get free four or five gallon buckets ate bakeries or deli’s,
Walmart sells many different sizes of bins. Just build a frame to hold it in place when a hen stands on the edge getting in or out. You don’t want it falling or tipping with eggs in it.
I built my lower nests with half inch hardware cloth bottoms. I use hay for a nesting material, long grass that I cut and dry myself. Just by turning that hay over a lot of trash falls right out. It only takes a few seconds for me to scoop that hay out and put some more in for my nests, bottom or top ones. If you use something like hay, straw, Spanish moss, rags, stuff like that, it shouldn’t take long to clean it, but if you use shredded paper or wood shavings I can see it would be a lot easier to just take it out an dump it.
I integrate young chickens a lot so I built a juvenile roost, separate from the main roosts and a bit lower. This gives the young chickens a safe place to roost away from my adults that is not the nests. It is right over my nests though, so I use the top of my nests as a droppings board. If you use a bin or bucket or build an open top nest you have to be a bit careful about them sleeping above it.
I don’t like the word best the way it is usually used on this forum. We are so unique that what is best for you may be unsuitable for me.
I’m constantly adding or subtracting from my coop. You have to be flexible. One thing I strongly suggest is to consider your comfort and convenience when you built the coop. You can follow the link in my signature to get some of my thoughts on how much room you might need, or at least some of the things that I think should go into that thought process. A lot of that is for you, not the chickens. I find that the tighter I try to shoehorn them into a space the more behavioral problems I have to deal with, the less flexibility I have to deal with issues, and the harder I have to work. So one of the most important thing I like in a coop is enough room to be flexible. It’s a lot less stressful to me.
I built a couple of my nests so I can lock a hen in there if I want to. That has been really handy for different things. It gives me extra flexibility in dealing with some things.
I built a 3’ x 6’ brooder into my coop. The bottom is ½” hardware cloth. For many reasons I prefer to brood in the coop when I don’t have a broody hen. But that also is used as a broody buster or a place to isolate a chicken if I need to. I built it under my main roosts so the top is a droppings board. Having a place built into the coop where I can isolate a chicken is really handy. The way I manage mine it is indispensable.
