I got my soon to be girls a cheap, simple nest box. There are all kinds of various choices, most are more than I'm interested in spending. This one is actually meant to be inside a coop, but I'll probably put this on some sort of stand to get it up off the ground and keep it dry, and will place it somewhere under the front stairs, aka the hen cave. Will likely go ahead and put some paint or varnish on it after it arrives, to protect it from weather and poop. And then get some shavings to line it.
From my reading, it appears hens are perfectly happy to share. You don't need to provide each with its own nest box. AND, an interesting thing I learned is you can teach a hen to lay somewhere by using a fake egg. Even one of those plastic easter eggs or a golf ball. How funny is that?
Update: We just got a gully washer, so I went to do some hen cave research about water issues. Gully washers produce temporary flooding. The hen cave brick patio I built gives the chickens a place to stay dry. A teensy bit of dripping from the stairs, but most of the water is flooding water, not dripping or blowing water. There's a place along the wall of the house that stays entirely dry, even from blowing rain, so we should shoot to "hang" my nest box there. Husband said when nest box arrives, he'll do a few quick presto chang-os to it, and we can probably put a couple hooks in the wall to hang it from. And I'll varnish it for good measure. My aim is to hang it where wetness won't get it, but I want it to be removable so I can clean it as necessary. It'll probably have pine shavings in it as nesting material.
Update: We just got a gully washer, so I went to do some hen cave research about water issues. Gully washers produce temporary flooding. The hen cave brick patio I built gives the chickens a place to stay dry. A teensy bit of dripping from the stairs, but most of the water is flooding water, not dripping or blowing water. There's a place along the wall of the house that stays entirely dry, even from blowing rain, so we should shoot to "hang" my nest box there. Husband said when nest box arrives, he'll do a few quick presto chang-os to it, and we can probably put a couple hooks in the wall to hang it from. And I'll varnish it for good measure. My aim is to hang it where wetness won't get it, but I want it to be removable so I can clean it as necessary. It'll probably have pine shavings in it as nesting material.
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