Luckily you guess wrong. It is a good question though. It is possible some may object to sharing while they are on the nest, once they are off the nest they are off. The nest is wide open for any chicken that wishes to use it. And it is quite possible they will lay in the same nest at the same time. With living animals you don’t get guarantees but you can often make pretty good guesses.
An advantage to having older hens already laying when a pullet comes into lay is that they usually teach the pullets where to lay. The pullets learn by watching them. I’s not unusual when a pullet first comes into lay that she just might drop her first few eggs about anywhere, from the roost or just walking around. Most have control from the start but not all do. I’ve noticed with older hens already laying more pullets seem to start with that control or gain it earlier.
With 21 combined hens and pullets four nests might or might not be enough. You are in a grey area and might want to consider adding another one or maybe even two. Size of the nests has something to do with that. The bigger the nests the more hens it can handle. Mine are 16” x 16” and it’s not that unusual to see three hens in there at the same time. They will still crowd into 12” nests but not as much.
I’ve also had nest hogs that won’t allow another hen in the nest with them, plus they take an awfully long time to lay their egg when they are in there. They really don’t come with guarantees.
An advantage to having older hens already laying when a pullet comes into lay is that they usually teach the pullets where to lay. The pullets learn by watching them. I’s not unusual when a pullet first comes into lay that she just might drop her first few eggs about anywhere, from the roost or just walking around. Most have control from the start but not all do. I’ve noticed with older hens already laying more pullets seem to start with that control or gain it earlier.
With 21 combined hens and pullets four nests might or might not be enough. You are in a grey area and might want to consider adding another one or maybe even two. Size of the nests has something to do with that. The bigger the nests the more hens it can handle. Mine are 16” x 16” and it’s not that unusual to see three hens in there at the same time. They will still crowd into 12” nests but not as much.
I’ve also had nest hogs that won’t allow another hen in the nest with them, plus they take an awfully long time to lay their egg when they are in there. They really don’t come with guarantees.
