Nest boxes

[SoccerMomof7]

Mine won't sleep on the roost they sleep on the floor, but my roost is only about 9 inches off the ground is that the problem?

 

[dacjohns]

My boxes are about 12 X 12 and about 18 inches off the ground. Sometimes the birds want to sleep in them rather that roost. Especially if they think they want to be broody.

Sorry my lodging isn't as nice as others but I'm on a low budget and haven't replaced the buckets with a stand yet. I am also using an old farm outbuilding for the coop.

 

[calee]

Do they actually use nest boxes? I've heard they'll lay anywhere...

 

[2manyhats]

Is there a formula to encourage the girls to lay in the boxes and not in the corners on the floor ? Boxes lower than the roosts sounds like one mistake I've made before re: "poopy eggs". I really don't want to have to hunt for the eggs every day. If I can get clean eggs in the box with my new girls, I'd be so happy.

 

[@migocontodos~]

The 12x12 will surely work, but I think 14x14x14 are better.
I have 12's now and some of the bigger girls are tight in them.

oh..and they will lay anywhere...we put the nest up to entice them to lay there!

 

[pbjmaker]

I am working on a coop design etc. right now myself and am confused about having the nesting boxes lower than the roost? Wouldn't gravity dictate that the poop would fall into them? You know the phrase "Poop runs downhill"

 

[newchickmom]

I have Black Australorps and we built thier nest boxes aprox. 14 x 14 x 14" square and they are about 18 inches off the floor. We have 2 tiers and they use both.

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

Our Nest boxes are 12x14x14 And they are up a little more then 18 inches...I've been considering lowering them now that someone said you may get poopy eggs! LOL My hens won't be coop age for 3 weeks yet so I have time to think on it.

 

[Chirpy]

I have Australorps also and my nest boxes are about 12x12 inches. I decided after seeing how tight a fit it was to take out the wall between two nest boxes and make that one 24x12. Guess what? Almost none of them use that one to lay eggs in. 95% of the time the chose one of the six smaller nest boxes! Go figure.

Anyway, I made the mistake of building a two tier nest box (four on top of four - that wasn't the mistake part), the mistake was only having the top boxes the same height off the floor as my roost. I have several hens that sleep in the top nest boxes and yes, I do get poopy eggs! Yuk!!

We are adding onto our hen house right now and will fix the roost problem. We are going to add more roost space and make the roosts higher. I'm really hoping my problem girls will re-learn to use the roost instead of the nest boxes.

Soccormomof7 - Yes, your roost is too low. If you have standard breeds I would suggest your lowest roost be about 18 - 24" off the floor and try to have one higher than that if possible. Standard breeds seem to like the "ladder" type roosts where they can jump from a lower roost up to the higher roost and then back down to the lower roost to get off. They can actually hurt their feet if they jump down from too high of a roost so giving them a "stepping stone" so to speak is a good idea.

Hens will lay their eggs anywhere but generally, if given the opportunity from day one, they will chose to lay in their nest boxes. That's why people put fake eggs or golf balls in their nest boxes when their hens are getting to the age of laying. It encourages the hens to use those nest boxes. I had hen that started laying her egg in the corner of the hen house. I put a large flat board (approx. 15x18") down in that corner and that stopped her. After about two weeks I was able to take the board back out and she hasn't gone back to laying there at this point (it's been about a month now).

pbjmaker: Generally you don't put your nest boxes under your roosts. (Someone might have to if they are very limited on space.) You would have your nest boxes on one wall and your roosts on another wall. That way, the poop that falls from the chickens while on the roosts doesn't fall down into the nest boxes. If you need to have your roost above the nest boxes then you should add a sloped flat board covering all the tops of the nest boxes so that the poop falls onto that board and then can be cleaned off without it falling into the nest boxes. Does that make sense?

 

[mudshark]

Mine are about 14"x14"x14" and 4" off the floor and will have the roosts close to the top of the boxes.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=52779