New to Chickens.. any advise will help...

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kimvdw9

kimvdw9

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Hello and thank you for visiting my thread. I am new to the Chicken nesting .... I have a few questions if anyone could help...

What is the best chicken to use for laying eggs?
Do the chicken's need a light in the coop?
About how high does the nesting boxes need to be from the floor?

Any other recommendations or helpful advise is truely appreciated.

Thanks alot for all the help!!
 
Hi, and
welcome-byc.gif
!

I've heard hybrids and some standard breeds are known for best egg laying. Ones I have heard are exceptional are Astralorps and I have red sex-links called Golden Comets. There are plenty others that are really great layers. I'd suggest you check out the breed descriptions on the site, or the hatchery sites just to see basic breed info. We picked breeds that would tolerate a bit of cold, because we can have some chilly weather, and depending where you are you might have other considerations for cold or heat.

As for the light in the coop, people most commonly do that for two reasons. You might have young chickens that still require supplemental warmth or if you want to keep egg-production up during the shorter winter months you'd hang a light in the coop. Typically it's not solely for light, hopefully you've built in windows and/or ventilation in your coop that will provide natural light when the sun is up.

I'm not sure exactly how high or low nest boxes should be, but the general idea is that they are usually lower than the roosts, because they like a nice enclosed space that is dark and easy to get in and out of for laying eggs.

Poke around the site. There are a lot of great threads where folks discuss all of theses topics. There are lots of longtime chicken keepers that can offer great advice.

Have fun!
 
:frow Welcome to the forum! :frow Glad you joined us! :frow


What is the best chicken to use for laying eggs?

There is no one right breed answer for everyone. The breeds do have tendencies but each chicken is an individual. They don’t always read the same behavioral book. Probably the best average chicken for egg laying is the Leghorn. They are fairly small so they get good feed to egg conversion. They don’t have to use a lot of what they eat for body maintenance like a larger chicken would. They generally lay a lot of eggs and those eggs are usually pretty good sized. But there are a lot of other breeds or crosses that work great. It depends on what your other goals related to chickens are.


Do the chicken's need a light in the coop?

They don't need a light, but they need light so they can see to move around and go to bed. A window provides this. It’s best not to leave a light on all the time. They really do need some dark for down time.

If you are talking about a light for heat in the winter, no, they do not need one. They wear a down coat year round. Heat in the summer is more of a danger than cold in the winter.


About how high does the nesting boxes need to be from the floor?

Whatever is convenient for you. The chickens pretty much don’t care. Some of us have nests on the floor, some have them mounted up a few feet on the wall. If you have a bad back, you might not want to bend over to get the eggs. I have two different levels, a couple maybe 14” up and one maybe 2 feet up. Right now they prefer the lower ones. I have had different chickens in the past that preferred the higher one. But they will lay in any of them.

Chickens scratch a lot. If you put them right on the floor, they might (not absolutely will, but might) scratch dirt and poop from the floor into the nests. Of course this depends on your specific conditions, what kind of bedding, if any, you use on the floor and how high the lip is on your nest.
 

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