WHY OUR
NEST BOX?
Innovative Design
Perhaps the main reason people decide to keep chickens is for the daily supply of fresh, tasty, nutritious eggs. Collecting your own eggs for breakfast really is a joy. That is so long as you don't have an egg pecker, or a nest box pooper, or muddy feet, or broody hens.
​
If this is your situation, and it so often is at some point for every chicken keeper, then collecting and cleaning your eggs can become a messy chore.
Our challenge was to design a nest box that solved all the issues associated with nesting chickens and egg collection. It also needed to be practical and maintenance free. After all, are we in the business of collecting eggs or poop? Looking after chickens or maintaining their nest boxes?
​
We also wanted to incorporate the principals of a community nesting box, providing a space efficient and sociable space for laying hens.
​
Our solution is the Eggtopia Nest Box, a rollaway egg box design that eliminates all these issues and aims to increase egg productivity and overall chicken keeping enjoyment. Read on to find out more:​
Clean Eggs
Dirty eggs are a headache, cleaning them takes considerable time, and once washed they need refrigeration. Not cleaning them means extra care must be taken when they are cracked, to avoid poop and mud falling into your food.
​
Just Imagine opening the lid of your nest box to discover clean, unpecked eggs!
​
The Eggtopia Nest Box has a rollaway design, so that just as soon as an egg is laid, it rolls safely away to a covered collection point, away from inquisitive beaks, sharp claws and poop, so that you can confidently collect fresh, clean eggs every day.​
​
The hens lay on a comfortable and hygienic nest pad, and the eggs gently roll in to the secure collection point, which has a unique bumper bar to prevent damage to those precious eggs.
Even unavoidable debris such as feathers and sawdust, falls through the steel mesh leaving just beautifully clean eggs.
​​​​
Reversible & Practical Design
Perhaps you prefer to collect your eggs from within the hen house, where you can keep a check on what's going on inside, or perhaps you prefer to collect from outside the hen house, to save disturbing the hens, and to keep from entering a potentially muddy run.
There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches, and fortunately the Eggtopia Nest Box's reversible feature means you can choose what best suits you. The nest box itself can also be wall mounted, or freestanding meaning a trouble free installation.
​
Did you know that according to scientific studies, Chickens are attracted to the colour red? This is why you will find a striking red curtain at the entrance to the nest box, providing all the privacy your hens might want.
​
Inside, a comfortable and hygenic nest pad provides the perfect nesting environment for your hens to lay.
​​
Using powder coated, or galvanised metal instead of wood, we have minimised the places red mites can hide, and made cleaning easy. The nest box can be wiped, or washed countless times with no ill effects and it dries in minutes. ​​
Community Style
Have you ever noticed your hens squashed together into the same nest box? As cute as this might look, the experience can be stressful for your hens and result in overcrowding, lower productivity, broken eggs and even injury.
The Eggtopia Nest Box is a community nest box which simply means that inside the box there are no partitions. This style of nesting is something that would have happened naturally in the wild long before domestication, and is a tried and tested method, successfully used in commercial set ups.
​
Hens are sociable creatures, and often feel more comfortable laying eggs in a communal area. This style of box is also more space efficient than traditional designs, meaning more chickens can happily share the same nesting space. Our nest box will comfortable serve 25 large chickens.
The red curtain (did you know that red is a chicken's favourite colour?) provides a sense of privacy and security your hen will love.
​
We believe that traditional partition nest boxes are quite simply outdated and inferior.
Broody Hens & Overnight Roosting
Broody hens are a problem. Unfortunately a broody hen is a hen who has stopped laying, and more importantly, is sacrificing her health and wellbeing for the sake of her unhatched eggs, and for many that will mean they lose condition to the point of near starvation. Add additional stress such as red mites to the situation, and they can sadly perish whilst doing so.
​
They can also 'hog' nest boxes, leaving the remainder of the flock with less space to lay.
​
Unless you are planning to hatch chicks under the hen, then the kindest thing for the chicken is to try and stop them continuing the broody behaviour.
​
The Eggtopia Nest Box has an innovative lift up perch, which can be raised after the rest of your chickens have laid to prevent access to the nest box by any broody chickens. This feature, coupled with the rollaway egg design, means that your broody hen should find it much easier to return to her usual self.
​​
In addition this feature is great for those chickens love to roost in their nest box overnight, particularly if they are rescue hens, who have not had the 'privilege' of having a designated roosting area in their old lives. Unfortunately this behaviour can be troublesome for the keeper, who will find large deposits of poop precisely where they will be collecting eggs later in the day, leading to very messy eggs and extra clear up time both of the eggs and in the coop.
​
Our innovative lift up perch can be utilised to prevent access to the nest boxes over night, and folded down in the morning to allow for laying. With consistent use, this behaviour can often be corrected within a week or two.
UK Design & Build
Our Eggtopia Nest Box has been designed by us in the UK, and is built by our skilled metal fabricators whom are also based in the UK.
We use quality materials, to create a solid, quality product that has been built to last.
​
Our Eggtopia Nest Box is made from galvanised Steel, and stands head and shoulders above other metal nest boxes which are manufactured overseas and often incorporate cheap, plastic parts. Its galvanised appearance looks great in a chicken run setting, matching feeders etc.
​
Our Eggtopia Nest Box Elite is powder coated in matt black, and blends seamlessly with our Shepherd's Hut Hen House. With extra rigidity and thicker material, this product benefits from our 1 year warranty.
​
​
