Nest box design and placement

saysfaa

Free Ranging
6 Years
Jul 1, 2017
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Upper Midwest, USA
I'm having trouble deciding nest box design and placement. I want to use crates for nostalgia reasons. They are each 14"x 16"x 12".

I have 5 pullets who are all 18 weeks old. Three are australorps and two are brown leghorns. So, I think I need two nest boxes and that the crates can go any direction (on their sides, or ends, or backs) as far as dimensions go.

The darkest corner and by far the corner most convenient for gathering the eggs is complicated by having the roost and poop board butting into it - but with a twelve inch gap between the frame and legs of the poop board and the wire wall diving the coop side from the storage side of the shed.

I want raised nests so I don't have to bend down to collect the eggs and so they can have a floor space.

I prefer to put the crates right side up so I don't have to build a frame to hold the bedding in. And so I don't have to take slats off to gather the eggs without going into the chicken side.

I have room - if the hens will go over the poop board to get to the nests. They spend a lot of time on the poop board, if that makes a difference.

Do you think they will?

The picture is not the end result - instead, both crates would be open side up, end to end with their bottoms about even with the cross bar you can see on the wall behind them. Their tops would be about even with the bottom of the frame around the poop board. They would rest of a piece of plywood supported by legs and maybe the wall framing.
 

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I'm raising the nest boxes. So, how much clearance between the landing bar and the nest boxes? For standard sized breeds (australorps).

The landing bar is a section of oak stair rail. It will be about 30 inches high, maybe. I'm not

I did a quick search, some have 8", I see 4", 5"...

What do you have or think, would you do that distance again if you were starting from scratch, any pros and cons?

Thank you
 
I'm raising the nest boxes. So, how much clearance between the landing bar and the nest boxes? For standard sized breeds (australorps).

The landing bar is a section of oak stair rail. It will be about 30 inches high, maybe. I'm not

I did a quick search, some have 8", I see 4", 5"...

What do you have or think, would you do that distance again if you were starting from scratch, any pros and cons?

Thank you
Do you mean how much higher than the nest box does the roosting perch need to be?

Or are you talking a perch directly at the nestbox to help them enter?

I have never had a landing perch at the nestboxes.
 
The roosts are on the other side of the coop.

I mean a bar across the front of the nest box so they can land as high as the nest box, then walk or hop straight in.

It will be about as high as the bottom of the nest boxes. I'm looking for how many inches in front of the nest boxes.
 
This shows the bar (my nests will look different), see where it shows 12" front to back for the nests? Then doesn't gove a measurement from the front of the nest to the perch/bar/landing place. I'm not sure what to call it.
 

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Maybe I should just make the standard wooden box.

I irritate me a lot sometimes, sigh. But
I really don't want to have to redo it.
Not being a carpenter I decided to make a simple long, wide and tall box for a nest box and attached it lower than the floor of the coop so technically my coop is a bi level. The hens can simply jump down into the nest box to lay from either side of the nest box.It has 2 entrances and no dividers. It also has a louvered vent for light and ventilation.
 
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