Nest box too small?

[iamrobotbug]

hello!
I’m currently in the process of building a new coop, and I think I may have made the nesting boxes a little too small, so curious to hear from more experienced folks.
The nesting box setup is one long box that will have partitions separating it into 3 12” long boxes. The entrance into the nesting boxes from the coop is 14” tall, which I know is adequate. At the lowest point, the interior height of the box is 12”, which should be fine. The issue I’m worried about is that I made the boxes 12” wide, but didn’t account for the stud that the box attaches to, which takes away 1.5” of footprint but doesn’t affect room to move around since it’s only the bottom 3” of the box.
Is a 12x10.5”footprint adequate? If I partitioned the overall box into two rather than three boxes, each would be 18(L)x10.5(W)x14(H), and maybe that would be better? I’ll include a drawing of the side profile since this is probably confusing.

 

[The Phantom]

Depends on what breeds you have or will get. I make all mine 12x12x12

 

[iamrobotbug]

Depends on what breeds you have or will get. I make all mine 12x12x12

We don’t have any bantams. I think the right thing to do is recut new side panels and make the box 1.5” bigger, I just wish I had thought about the stud before I used up my existing plywood reserves!
I thought maybe it would be okay since it’ll still be a 12x12x12 box everywhere but the bottom couple inches.

 

[TwistedSteel]

I would just go with the single divider making it two nests. How many hens do you have or intend to have?

 

[iamrobotbug]

I would just go with the single divider making it two nests. How many hens do you have or intend to have?

We plan to have 5 hens, MAYBE 6. Right now we have 3 hens and 4 chicks, and we plan to rehome two chicks when we move the other 5 over to this new coop.

 

[The Phantom]

We don’t have any bantams. I think the right thing to do is recut new side panels and make the box 1.5” bigger, I just wish I had thought about the stud before I used up my existing plywood reserves!
I thought maybe it would be okay since it’ll still be a 12x12x12 box everywhere but the bottom couple inches.

that’s what I would do

 

[Sueby]

My nest boxes are small, between 10 & 11 squared or so & not very tall, the top slopes down in the back so it gets shorter the deeper in you go. I cut the divider out between 2 boxes to make 1 bigger one & the hens have no problem using it. But I have one hen that always uses the 3rd small box anyway! I was worried they wouldn't use them but they have no issues.

 

[iamrobotbug]

My nest boxes are small, between 10 & 11 squared or so & not very tall, the top slopes down in the back so it gets shorter the deeper in you go. I cut the divider out between 2 boxes to make 1 bigger one & the hens have no problem using it. But I have one hen that always uses the 3rd small box anyway! I was worried they wouldn't use them but they have no issues.

I’m thinking if I do the two boxes instead of three, that’ll be adequate. Once I put bedding in, it’ll be filled up to the point where it’s back to being a 12x12 space anyway

 

[rosemarythyme]

With 5-6 hens, 2 boxes should be enough, so I'd just go with 2 wider boxes in this case. Honestly they'll probably favor using just 1 box so having a total of 2 is no big deal.

 

[jthornton]

I have 8 RIR hens and when they stand up to lay the egg they need 14" of height so they don't have to get bent over while standing up. I have one nest box 36" wide, 14" tall and 14" or so deep.

JT