Chicken Coop Nest - Build It Yourself Tips for the DIY Handyman
Author: Bob Hightower
If you plan on raising chickens you will need to buy or build a suitable chicken coop. If you are a DIY handyman, you can save a lot of money by building your own chicken coop. One of the more important design features of the chicken coop is the design of the nest. In order to keep your hens producing fresh eggs every day you must properly design your nest. Follow these simple guidelines to ensure a consistent supply of farm fresh eggs.
Choosing the Correct Number of Chicken Nests: Construct one nesting box for every 2 to 4 hens in your chicken coop. If you decide to stack the nests vertically you should build a small perch in front of the chicken nest for easy access.
Size of the Chicken Nest: The most common size of nest for chickens is 12 inches wide x 12 inches deep x 12 inches high for standard breeds. For larger, heavier, breeds the nesting box should be 14 inches wide x 14 inches tall x 12 inches deep. Be sure to allow enough room for the hens to stand upright inside the nest.
Shape and Location of the Chicken Coop Nest: It is important to keep the nest lower than the roost inside your chicken coop. Chickens like to sleep at the highest accessible point inside the chicken coop. Keeping the nest lower than the roost will discourage the chickens from sleeping inside the nest. You should also include a lip at the front of the nest. The lip serves two purposes. First, it keeps the fresh eggs inside the nest so you don't end up with broken eggs on the floor. Second, the front lip is soothing for the hen. She will feel sheltered and will in turn produce more eggs.
Chicken Coop Nest - Must Have Features: Construct an external access door to easily retrieve your farm fresh eggs every morning. Install a lower front lip to keep debris out of the nest and keep the eggs and straw in the nest.
Final Nest Touches: Hens enjoy the comfort of a straw bed or wood shavings. Happy hens are productive hens. Place a two inch thick layer of pine straw to reduce the chances of breaking an egg as it is laid.
Handyman Design Tips and Farming Tips: Slope the roof of the chicken coop nest to discourage chickens from sleeping on top of the nest and creating a mess. Place a few replica wooden eggs or golf balls in the nest. This will help train your hens. Hens will produce more eggs in a darker, enclosed nest.
i inherited five chickens and a cockerel when i moved in february. in june, two of the hens produced 20?
beautiful baby chicks which i have since separated from the mothers so that they would return to laying. Three weeks ago, another hen produced four more chicks so now i have a total of 26 hens and a cockerel.
All this is great but it has created a few problems that as a complete beginner i need your help with so please bear with me.
Firstly my cockerel has started attacking the older hens. I want to keep him ‘cos i’d like to continue to breed the hens for their fantastic eggs and also more chicks. What can I do with him to stop him?
Secondly, the three month old chicks have been separated from their mothers now for six weeks and have a coop of their own. I kept them contained in the coop for four weeks (not knowing how long was necessary) but as I want all my birds to be free range, I released them a fortnight ago. The problem was that they would only return to the outer pen at night resulting in a loss of three of them (to my horrible dogs I suspect). How can I get them to return to the safety of their roost?
Finally, I have already discovered that the older chicks and the new ones won’t mix so am keeping them separate for the moment. Obviously, this means that I now have three pens and feel that the hens are controlling me instead of the other way round. I am in the process of building a new pen on the edge of one of the fields that all animals graze in (pigs, sheep, geese) the goal being to have all the animals together and away from my garden. At what age can I put them together and are there any practical ways of getting the hens to brood at the same time of year to prevent this next time?
The roo is not attacking the hes hes mating or trying to this is how you get peeps (baby ) chickens. It may look like he’s attacking but hens know different besides most hens wont fight a roo and how many roos do you have if not sure waite till 5 months and all roos will start to crow and you will know for sure or look at tail feathers these are much longer and curved than a hens, plus the comb (top red on head) is larger than a hens.You don’t want but 1 roo for your small flock since these birds do fight some just peck each other others will fight hard but if have 2 the one will be boss and chase the other around the yard.
The hens are easy to have since they get along, there is whats called a pecking order the birds establish this and they live by it. all of then even the peeps will learn this as they grow. The roo he’s the Boss over all the hens since hes a male he believes these are All his ladies and will let another roo know this real fast
You need to heard the birds in at night so they will be safe from other critters such as cats, dogs,raccoonss,possumss skunks, foxcoyotess,weasel’ss etc.All these can kill or injure your birds. You have to have a coop for all your birds to return to at night with some roosts in it this is where they sit for the night and rest , they have to be closed in with a door that can be locked or chained closed to keep critters out since birds are blind at night critters have an advantage over them. If no coop the birds will find other places to roost such as a tree a roof something high which leaves the vuluable to other critters all night long.A coop with chicken wire is great with a solid floor to keep critters from digging in from out side. and they will do this.You need at least 2 sides closed in to protect birds from weather a solid roof to keep dry when raining hay for floor so birds wont bust legs or necks when fly off roosts plus absorbs waste and eaiser to clean up. Will also need a couple nesting boxes as well for hens to lay eggs in put some hay in them as well the birds will make a neat nest to have eggs in and when ready to have peeps will also sit in one or two depends on how many hens you have sitting.
For your hens to all set at the same time is un likely since you wont know when the roo has done his job only the hens know this and to be on the safe side you need to ckeck all eggs when bring in to be sure you hsvent picked up any from a sitting hen since hens do leave the nest to eat and drink and then return.
Chickens are pretty simple to raise and a delight to have and some are wonderful to watch very good buggers and and eat almost any thing you want to give them from your table. I have 13 hens and 2 roos and yes the 2 roos do have their dis agreements but they do fine.