nest box in the coop or out for those living in northeast Ohio

[ptjeff]

For those who live in the cold NE Ohio winters. When I am considering my design, should I put nest boxes inside or build them to hang outside with the lift up lid. The coop will be 4x6 with a large door on the 6' side, so ease of access should not be an issue. My concern is that with how cold it gets up here, will it be too cold for the nest boxes to be hanging outside the coop.

 

[iwiw60]

Since you live in snow country like I do I would recommend keeping the nesting boxes inside the coop for sure. And yes, it will get too cold for your nest boxes to be hanging outside. Best of luck!!

 

[DianaMallory]

I live in central south Ohio I had my nesting boxes on the outside of my coop, to give my girls all the space they needed inside. My only regret was I didn't put a steep enough pitch on the roof of it and the lid got very heavy with ice and snow. I would have to clean the ice off at times to even lift it. We are in the process of building a new coop And I am putting my nesting boxes on the outside again. But this time we are going to have a steep enough roof on it. I like not going into the coop and just lifting the lid to gather eggs. I am home all day so not a problem to go out and check for eggs a couple times a day, to keep them from freezing. I had heat in my coop but the boxes did get rather cold when there wasn't a hen sitting. I guess it depends on your daily schedule. If you are trying to save space like I am I suggest outside the coop, if your worried about your eggs getting to cold, put temporary boxes inside for winter and block your outside boxes off until spring. And it also motivates me to get outside more in the winter, other wise I would just sit back and watch it snow!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't know how many chickens you plan to have, but as long as the chickens have room to get under them, they don’t take available space away from them as far as room in the coop. It sounds like you will have a walk-in coop so you should have plenty of height to use. They can take away room for roosts, feed, and water though so that’s something to consider. You could build them under the roosts and use the tops as a droppings board. No wasted space there. Or build the coop a little bigger. You might follow the link in my signature to get my thoughts on space. In your winter climate, unless you have a run that will stay at least partially snow-free, you want to err on the side of making the coop too big.

If you wish you can still make a door to gather the eggs from the outside, just hinge it to swing sideways, down, or up, whichever you prefer, but I like going inside the coop regularly. I’ve found a dead chicken, an injured chicken, snakes, and even a possum by going inside that I would have missed if I had gathered eggs from the outside.

If you do hang them on the outside, you can always insulate them to cut down on them losing heat. It won’t add any heat but it will slow how fast they cool off. Chickens will eat certain types of insulation so you need to cover it so they can’t get to the insulation. Even inside the coop it’s possible you could get frozen eggs on your worst days of the year, but gather them as often as your schedule allows to avoid that.