Nest box on people door?

[Kohhal]

Hi,

New to all this and researching designs for building my first coop. No chicks yet so have a bit of time to figure out my design.

I'm going to put my coop up against an existing garden shed and so won't have access to one side and also the back of the coop - so I only have 2 sides to work with.

I need an entry door for the chickens, a nest box and a people door(for cleaning) - some combination of the three on two available sides.

If one side of the coop was a full size people door, hinged on one side, has anyone seen or tried to put the nest boxes on an access door like this?

I might try to put a sliding floor in also for easy cleaning...

Thanks & Hello from Ireland!

(Oops, meant to say that I'm only planning 3 chicks and the size for the coop will prob be 4' * 3' and a run about 9' * 3'(or 6' maybe). (something like the Purina Mills design as a base I think)

 

[sunny & the 5 egg layers]

That is a very good idea, and would make for easy egg collecting. But I would worry about the chickens getting scared of the nest box because when somebody opens the door, the whole nest box moves with it.

Just my two cents worth. Good Luck with designing your coop!

 

[Kohhal]

Thanks for the reply, just to clarify :

The next box will be on the outside of the door like most coops are and I would only need to open it out for big cleans of the coop - when the chickens are outside so hoping that wouldn't cause them any concern then.

Egg collecting would be just opening the lid above the nest boxes as per the norm.

 

[chfite]

Infrequent use of the door should be fine. Three chickens, one nest box should suffice, but a door is probably wide enough to mount two.

I think that it is good to plan ahead on how to use a coop so that you foresee good and bad.

Chris