nest box sizes

what do you think on nestbox sizes, large or small?

Large :plenty room for 2 bowls or locking hen in one side, more territory. light and airy.

Small: easier for a cock to protect his space, maybe less chance of fighting, broken eggs, you get up nearer to youngbirds in nest, they get used to human contact.

If left to the birds they end up nesting on the floor, or window shelf, box perch whatever takes their fancy anyway.

One's I'm making are only about 14" x 16" so time will tell

barnie wrote:

what do you think on nestbox sizes, large or small?

Large :plenty room for 2 bowls or locking hen in one side, more territory. light and airy.

Small: easier for a cock to protect his space, maybe less chance of fighting, broken eggs, you get up nearer to youngbirds in nest, they get used to human contact.

If left to the birds they end up nesting on the floor, or window shelf, box perch whatever takes their fancy anyway.

One's I'm making are only about 14" x 16" so time will tell

Absolutely hate small breeding boxes etc here Barnie always liked them big enough to have a shelf on the back wall for the birds to escape too or another bowl for the 2nd round as such. Built mine in the early days here to the size of the local Age newspaper as I always placed them on the bottom of the box's & then replaced them every 2nd day or so for cleaning purposes etc. & take care.

i have both colin, the small ones fit perfectly into a 6ft wide section, they are a little bit too small really but they do the job if your racing widowhood etc

i do prefer the bigger, normal size boxes with no fronts, i dont race so they suit me fine as i can put two nest bowls in , rather than the parents either building a second nest with no bowl when the ybs are still in the nest bowl, or leaving the box altogether and laying on the floor .....

My boxes are big in most of my sections, only one end has normal widowhood ones and I don't like them. The others are 6 inches deeper..stock I made myself which are a decent size as well

i have had both large and small ,i found the smaller boxes were more trouble mine were about 16" square and they were always fighting and no room for 2nd bowl so i reverted to a 30" box the traditional widow box type and when pairs were settled to boxes i would take one of the fronts off and leave 1 on ,so theres plenty room for a bird to escape if in wrong box ...also ample room for that 2nd bowl ,be a bit tight otherwise jmo and what i found worked or never worked for me atb