First Coast Pet

Posts Tagged ‘chicken house design’

chicken coop plans

You don’t want to forget this critical part of your chicken house plans.

Building from chicken house plans without nesting boxes is like building your own house without a bedroom.  Well, sort of.

You need nesting boxes for several reasons, the first being its importance to the chickens themselves.  The nesting box is that safe, comfortable place for the chicken to relax that is usually away from the light and in the shade.
A good rule is one nesting box for every three and up to five hens. When a hen is ready to lay an egg, she will search for that quiet, private place – something that is soothing and safe.  The nesting box fills this purpose and gives the chickens that safe, comfortable place to lay eggs.

Nesting boxes are not only beneficial to the chickens, but they are helpful for those folks who are raising chickens as well.Basically, it centralizes the area for egg production and keeps your chicken house organized.Without a nesting box, a hen will search around and lay her egg wherever she sees fit.Then you would have a real egg hunt when it was time to get eggs from your chicken house.  Another benefit for the chicken raising folks, nesting boxes makes it easier to collect the eggs and to determine freshness.You can determine the freshness of certain eggs because of the order and time you collect your eggs from the nesting boxes.

Fine, Now How Do You Make A Nesting Box?

Size is important to remember when making nesting boxes.  They need to be small enough for the chicken to feel safe and comfortable.However, you cannot make them so small that you can’t clean them.  A good sized nesting box is about one-foot square, but you can check with your local feed store or veterinarian for the breed of chickens that you are raising. 
For more on the design of the nesting boxes, read the rest of the article here for complete chicken house plans