While a lot of people view their chickens as pets and part of the family, many people get into the business of small poultry farming for the eggs that hens provide.
If you're interested in the eggs, then you're going to need to include nesting boxes for your birds.
Fortunately, they couldn't be easier to build.
While you can opt to purchase large steel nesting boxes or expensive pre-made ones, that's really not necessary.
Building your own nesting boxes is cheap, easy, and can be fun.
If you're building your own coop from one of the various chicken coop designs out there, it may or may not already include nesting boxes.
If it doesn't, all you really need is some plywood, a hammer and nails, and possibly some sandpaper to smooth the edges out afterward.
A nesting box is really just that - a box, usually about one foot on all sides.
Typically if you are constructing your boxes from plywood, you integrate several nesting boxes together as a single unit.
Once you've built them, fill them up with straw or wood shavings and your hens will be right at home.
If you intend to actually hatch some of your hens' eggs, then you might also want to consider a chicken coop heater.
It's pretty common knowledge that chicken eggs require warmth to survive, so a heater can help ensure that.
Since you'll likely want some electricity in your hen house for lighting anyway, it's not too much of an inconvenience to add a heater.