The coop is up and now...

[TomGallopavo]

I will eat my 49 chickens down to 10 hens, maybe a rooster, by winter (we'll have slaughter days when they get big enough). They have two large runs, 25x50 each. The coop is 8x8.

So.... I can build three nests inside or have two nests stick out the front so I can access them without going inside. Either would be 18 inches above the coop floor. The hens will be Buff Orpingtons and Barred Rocks. Being my first coop/chicken experience, I'm interested to know which you would do and why. Thanks!

 

[TomGallopavo]

Well...OK, I decided that two outside would be fine. I could always expand later, we have the room.

 

[TinyLittleFarm]

I think 2 nests for 10 hens will be just fine, and it is certainly much more convenient to be able to get at them from outside! A few of my hens have decided to start laying in the middle of the coop. Pain in the butt to fetch them in there.

 

[Kudzu]

Man, you a mean MamaJama ain't you? Just jiving you, I have sworn off chicken since we got our girls.

 

[TomGallopavo]

Mean? Like when one of the chickens died and the rest pecked and ate on him all night? Or when meat factories raise chickens in digusting conditions? Ahhh...I just messin' with ya. Kudzu, my little girls six and four help me cut up deer and wild turkey, ducks, geese (because they want to) so chickens will be childs play for them, pun intended. And I'm a dada, not a mama...

After this coop thing is done...and the fences, homemade feather plucker

I can use it on the ducks and geese I shoot in the winter...I hope. I know us guys are pretty dumb but one of the most beautiful things in the world is watching the lab you trained swim out and retrieve a duck...seriously. Yea, I'm going with two nests...I could always go down to say, 8 hens for this coop. How many posts before I can show you my coop?