Nesting boxes....

[Edub]

Hey everyone! Looking for some feedback on the new coop. I have 5 chicks and 2 pekin ducks. All about 3 weeks old. I've done a TON of research on my coop to be sure I build one that fits the needs of both the chicks and the ducks. Here's my question....nesting boxes?? So I have room for about 5 nesting boxes at 12" each. I know I do not need that many. Mine will be floor level with roosting bars on the opposite side elevated of course. Do you think if I build a couple nesting boxes wider like 14-15" my ducks would use them? So maybe 2-3 boxes at 12" and then 2 boxes a little wider at 14-15"? I'm wondering if I can make this work since they are ground level. From what I've read ducks just prefer floor space with hay to make their own nests. Trying to get some feedback on if I should build dif sized nesting boxes? Thanks for your feedback!

 

[cavemanrich]

If I was going to utilize 5 feet of nesting box area, I would build 2 communal boxes 30 inches wide, and 18 inches high, and 16 inches deep. I would also raise them 4 inches off the floor with a small lip on edge, to keep hay, or other nesting materials from falling out. The raised part would keep floor litter from being scratched, flung into nests.
WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and

 

[tralfaz]

My boxes are the type which stick out of the sides. I keep the extra boxes blocked with chicken wire and use them for storage till my flock grows.

 

[Edub]

Thank you for the info!

 

[Acre4Me]

First, I don't have ducks. But I have nesting boxes for chickens, including large/heavy breeds.

Our coop is elevated. The nest box sticks out the side. It is flush with the floor of the coop, but we do have a lip on the bottom boxes. We had one style before we recently replaced it. That previous box was meant to be a communal box 32" wide....but, chickens can be opinionated and what we found was that certain strong personalities would take over the box and not let anyone else in, except * maybe * their bestie. So we added a partition. That was so much better. But, we found that 2 large boxes wasn't enough, even though they would share these extra large boxes. We added Kitty Litter pails (the rectangular ones) and certain pullets/hens loved these nests.

With the replacement nest box, we added a 2nd level of boxes. We kept the bottom 2 floor level, and tall and wide. Then the top has 3 nest boxes with a roost bar on the outside. The top boxes are very much favorites, but the bottom boxes are for our large breeds: we have very big Jersey Giants, and are raising some Light Brahmas that are currently quite large in comparisons to their chick-mates at 9 weeks old.

Here is the new next boxes we built. We put a double door on the outside. We added a sliding cover on the inside for those times when a bird gets the idea of sleeping in the nest boxes, we can cover them up easily. The top boxes sometimes will have 2 birds in them. Only the BJG seems to use the bottom box. However, I think if we added more privacy to the opening, more birds would use the bottom boxes. In the past, I added curtains, but we could also add triangular pieces of wood to the openings to cover up the corners and make it more "private", if we wanted to use a more durable item.

Good Luck!

 

[Kat2141]

Just remember, no matter what YOU think, they will come up with a different idea. LOL