Who thinks the nest box ratio is wrong?

[CCourson05]

I personally believe that the 4 hens per box thing is off BIG TIME! I have 17 hens at the moment, and find all my eggs in one nesting box every time. They will swap between two, but they all lay in the same after the initial egg is laid. I think I could go with 10 hens per box... What about you all?

 

[julie75]

But what if you have a broody hen or two and you want them to hatch some eggs?

 

[CCourson05]

I move the hen into a separate pen then, anyway. I only allow my silkies to hatch in their coop, which is a separate coop from the standard girls.

 

[Judy]

Mine do the same. I often read of this kind of thing happening here and never tell people they need the full 4 per hen. I do find, though, that they sometimes like different kinds of nests. If they find a fresh pile of straw on the floor, someone will inevitably lay there. I have a plastic open top bin with a lowered front that I use for a broody nest, and I have one that prefers it to the standard open front row of nests.

My nests are all made from whatever I found lying around here. If I planned them, I would plan different kinds.

 

[julie75]

Well currently I have 4 nest boxes and 5 hens. They use 3 out of 4 (I think that is because the rooster likes to sleep in the fourth one sometimes) We have 4 more built for when my other 5 hens get big enough for them. It's actually one long box divided into 4 sections and the other one is designed to sit on top of the first one. I think with smaller numbers it's really no big deal but if you have a very large flock it may be harder for them to share.

 

[BlossomSilkies]

I'm not sure what the official ratio is, but I have 4 nest boxes, and eventually will have 13 hens laying. At the moment I have 5 hens laying, and yep, they use 1 nest box, the same one, every day. The other 3 nest boxes have never had an egg in them.

I dunno.

And by the way, in the beginning, the 2 Jersey's used the corner of the coop. They only started using the nest box after my Barred Rock laid her first egg and used the nest box, I guess the Jersey girls were like, "Oh cool, that's what that's for!" They have used the nest box ever since. Cwazy chickens!

 

[tiffanya]

I have 3 boxes for 10 hens and I've never seen more than two in a box. In fact about half of my hens lay under the up-side-down laundry basket I have on the floor of my coop for my duck! I have seen them fight over that location.

 

[BlossomSilkies]

Quote:

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Five hens to the box is the ratio I work with.

But they're all going to lay in one or two boxes anyway so I pulled the dividers and now have one big community nest. They seem to like it that way.

 

[imaturtlefan]

Oh good, I was afraid I was overcrowding, because I only had 3 nest boxes, and 5 (hopefully, soon to be 6) laying hens

I actually built another larger box apart from the coop, that Ive seen like 4 or 5 of my hens climb into at once that they seem to like as well, just figured id give them another option