Nest Box or Boxes

[jthornton]

I've giving this some thought and I should have been working lol not thinking of chickens. I think I will move the electron containing devices outside the coop in a weather proof panel then remove everything on the nest box side and put in a large door like this one on the other side. Then run two roosts from front to back which would give me 8' of roost and one perpendicular to the two side ones for an additional 3' of roost. This will give the chickens 20 square feet for the coop.



So add a second roost on the other side from this one to almost double the roost length.



Then hang some nest boxes off the side of the run sorta like the feeder but hanging outside?


Just wondering if my thought process is on track. Give them as much roost and coop space as I can for now. Add nest box(s) to the enclosed run.

JT

 

[aart]

I built my 56" wide nest bank with (fairly easily) removable dividers.
Started with 1 'double' nest and 2 separate nests.
Only one bird at a time used the double nest, so I added divider back in.
Tho the cockbird(I started with a flock of adults) got in the double nest the first day and spent 30 minutes explaining to the hens that this was the place to lay. He wouldn't have fit well in a single nest.

Hard to say if single or community nests are best, why I made mine adjustable.....what ever works.

 

[jthornton]

I built my 56" wide nest bank with (fairly easily) removable dividers.
Started with 1 'double' nest and 2 separate nests.
Only one bird at a time used the double nest, so I added divider back in.
Tho the cockbird(I started with a flock of adults) got in the double nest the first day and spent 30 minutes explaining to the hens that this was the place to lay. He wouldn't have fit well in a single nest.

Hard to say if single or community nests are best, why I made mine adjustable.....what ever works.

Did you change the 4 round holes or just move the dividers around? Looking at your article on your coop I see one photo that shows a double on one side and two singles on the other.

JT

 

[aart]

Did you change the 4 round holes or just move the dividers around? Looking at your article on your coop I see one photo that shows a double on one side and two singles on the other.

JT

Did not change hole locations, just added back the one divider.
The lower back(under access door) of nest bank had to be unscrewed to add divider, so not a 'tool-less quick change'.
Yes, coop page shows the configuration I started with.
It looks like this now:

 

[Wise Woman]

Originally I had 6 nest boxes, 3 on the top and 3 on the bottom. I had about 20 chickens at that time and they only ever used 2 or 3 of the nest boxes. Many times there would be 2 hens in one box and a 3rd one trying to get in.

So when we moved 5 years ago, I made 2 communal nests that were each 4 ft long. They all used the top one and pretty much ignored the bottom one. There would be several hens in the nest box at the same time with no problem.

So for my new coop I have 2 communal nest boxes that are about 30" wide. But like aart, I can add dividers and make 4 individual nest boxes if I need too. The girls just got done with a molt and are on vacation right now, so I will have to wait a bit to see how it actually works out.

 

[Wise Woman]

I have one community box, 42" wide for 7 hens. sometimes 3 at a time will be in there. It has two openings with curtains. Its also a rollout with no nesting material.
Works fine for us

Gary

Hi Gary. You don't know me but my husband is your gas man! This is how we had our nest boxes for the past 5 years. Except the rollout part. It worked well for us. Hope our new ones work as well.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

Hi Gary. You don't know me but my husband is your gas man! This is how we had our nest boxes for the past 5 years. Except the rollout part. It worked well for us. Hope our new ones work as well.

Frank?

Wow, small world, yes it is an enchanted forest we live in

Gary

 

[Wise Woman]

Yes! It is a small world. We have had chickens since 2001.

 

[Wise Woman]

I am Vicki by the way. Maybe we could tour each other's coops sometime?