Nest box, dividers or not?

[grumps]

I'm pretty new to this chicken thing, but am having fun with it. I have 5 x 8 week old hens whom I just moved to their finally finished coop. I've got just a few small loose ends to finish up. And that's where the question comes from.

The nest box protrudes out from the coop with a hinged lid and I built it with 2 nests. My wife thinks I should not put a divider between the nests. All the pictures of nests I've seen have the dividers, except for the ones in the cartoons

. What do you think?

Thanks.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Glad you're having fun already with your hens & your coop-building.

I think the nest box should have a divider, they seem to prefer cozy private places for laying. They also like to interrupt each other on the nest, so if it's open they may spend more time bothering each other. If it's not a problem to do it, go ahead and divide your nest box..

Let us know when you get your first egg!

 

[Country4ever]

I have a community nest box, and they seem to be fine with it. Since 5 hens will probably all want to lay their eggs together, I think it would be good to leave out the divider. What my hens do is wait right next to the laying hen, and when she's done, then they just move over to the egg pile to lay theirs.
It probably won't really matter what you do. I do have strips of burlap over the front of my box. They seem to appreciate the privacy.

 

[Featherland]

I built mine without dividers but later added them. I didn't have too many problems without dividers but things worked out better with them. You can try it first without and always add them later.

 

[chookchick]

I vote for not having dividers. Mine is just one long nest, and they always seem to want to lay at the same end anyway. They can hang out together and chat or whatever.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Here's a prety good thread on community nesting boxes.

Community Nesting Boxes
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=173767

In my personal opinion, it doesn't matter to the chickens all that much. You'll find thay we do all kinds of things with nesting boxes. I think there are more different types and styles of nests than anything else except maybe coops and practically all of them work. You should do what you think will be more convenient for you.

 

[grumps]

Thanks for the input. Lol, easier would've been getting a kit. I've spent over 2 months building this with plenty of mistakes and oopsies along the way. The kids love it though and they get to shine in these final parts. We painted it sky blue (based on my eldest daughters request), the next plan is to let the kids sketch in pencil whatever they want and then I'll buy several colors of exterior paint and fine brushes so they can color in their sketches. I'll put up pics when we're 100%.

I can't even tell you what kind of chickens I have

. The feed store got in 200 hundred sexed chickens and I said pick out whatever's cute, just get 2 each. 2 girls, 2 chickens each, I should have 4. Well, my wife just had to have one too.

Anyway, I'll marinate on the divider some more and check out that helpful thread. My wife thought no divider, so I have to lean with her - even if it's not (again) part of the original plans I made.