nest boxes

Depends on how big your chickens are. A foot to a foot and a half off the ground is good, although hens aren't picky, and some people actually prefer having the boxes directly on the floor.

 

Just make sure your roost is higher than your nesting boxes. Chickens will look for the highest place they can get to to roost so keeping it higher than the nests will discourage them from sleeping in the nests. They poo A LOT when they sleep and no one wants that in their nests. As far as how high to put your nests...it's your preference but take into consideration that heavier breeds and those who can't fly may have a harder time getting up to the boxes so maybe keeping it fairly low to the floor would be good for those who do have a little trouble getting up higher on their own while still offering those who can manage just fine to choose whichever height they like best.

 

SIX nesting boxes? How many hens do you have? You may find that you really only need that first layer of 3 boxes, which would be plenty for up to 6-7 hens...just thinkin'

 

I would suggest min 18 in so there is enough headroom below for chickens. With the double tier nests, the roost is going to be pretty high.

I agree with other posters that not all 6 nests will be used.

My question is, you have total of 10 ft of roost, has that been enough for 18 birds? I don't exactly subscribe to the conventional notion of 1ft per bird, so I am curious how your ratio is working.

 

Two feet should work OK. The way I do it is to look at the height of the floor with bedding, set the nests, then put the roosts noticeably higher than the nests but as low as reasonable. The higher you have the roosts the more clear room on the floor they need to hop down. And they spread their wings when they jump/fly up. The higher you have them the more clear space they need to get up and down. I don’t know how big your coop is, but 12” is usually noticeable.

One problem crowding them on the roosts is that if they are too crowded or if you wind up with a bully in the roosts some might go looking for a safer or better place to roost. That is often the nests. Five feet is not nearly enough roost room for 18 hens. They will all want to roost on the top one but the ones higher in the pecking order will get the top roosts. For 18 hens I’d want at least 12 feet of roost length with more being better. And all that needs to be higher than the highest nest though it does not necessarily have to all be the same height.

 

I have 40 hens how many nest boxes would i need, there not old enough yet to lay but would like to be prepaired. I also have 5 Guinea Keets what would i need for them when they get to laying age?

 

8-9 should be fine, can't help with the guineas though.