[nzdunn]

I have converted our childrens old plastic wendy house into the new hen house for the new arrivals on friday, its plenty big enough for two hens, ive fixed in a perch for them at the front and then their nest box is at the back on bricks.    My first question is how high does the nest box have to be off the ground, im looking at it and wondering if they will be able to jump in.   My second question is the area that we are keeping them in is have paved and half grass, ive decided to put the house on the paved area for easy cleaning etc.   The wendy house does not have a floor on it so they have paved area for the flooring, the wendly house is very heavy so carnt be knocked over or up if you know wot i mean, its been raining all day today and i have been checking  to see if rain is coming in but must say it seems pretty watertight apart from the floor,  the floor seems damp around the edges of the house, will this be ok, im thinking of putting down some bark chippings on the floor bit in front of their nest boxes to stand on if they wish.   thanks for taking the time to read this, just want to do the best for them, hopefully the weather will start to turn nice.    nicky :happy:

[nzdunn]

any advice anyone please, just would really like to know about the paved flooring getting damp so was thinking of covering it with bark chippings.    nicky

[janeheritage]

Whatever you do with the nest box make it LOWER than the perches or all the girls will sit in it at night rather than the perches and you'll get poo on your eggs.

As for the floor - it has to be easy to clean. I use newspaper and straw: I know a lot of people like wood shavings. I find the wood chip which I have outside in the run's covered area is a bit tricky to poo pick.

[poultrygeist]

Hi nicky.

I've not heard of anyone doing anything similar so nto sure what would be best.
All the hen houses I know of have floors in. Is there any way you could put a floor in somehow ?
I'm just imagiing if we get rain like we did last year, it could become a bit of a lake in there. I should think bark chippings would be ok for now at least though.
The nest box needs to be lower than the perch so if it's on a couple of bricks, that should be ok. Just beware of rats or other egg-stealers getting in. Chickens can jump up a good few inches (or feet) so about 6" off the floor won't be a problem as long as they have a soft surface to jump out again. Are you putting straw in the nest box ?

Rob

[nzdunn]

Hiya thanks for the replies, yes rob im gonna put newspaper in and then lots of straw, thought the newspaper would be handly just to roll everything up when cleaning out, i also keep guinea pigs and thats wot i do with them, makes very thing much easier.   Yep nest box is lower than perch so thats ok.   Im gonna see about putting something on the floor then.    Thanks again for advice.  nicky