6 Best Enclosed Chicken Nesting Boxes For Beginners That Prevent Common Issues
For beginner chicken keepers: these 6 enclosed nesting boxes keep eggs clean and safe, helping to prevent common issues like breakage and egg eating.
There’s nothing more frustrating than heading out to the coop and finding your beautiful, fresh eggs cracked, caked in mud, or worse. You’re doing everything right, but your hens seem determined to ruin their own hard work. The problem often isn’t the chickens; it’s the equipment. A simple upgrade to an enclosed nesting box can solve 90% of these common beginner frustrations overnight.
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Why Enclosed Nest Boxes Prevent Dirty Eggs
Chickens are not tidy animals. They poop where they stand, and if they decide to sleep in their nesting box, they will soil it completely. An open-topped bucket or a simple wooden crate invites this behavior, turning your egg collection spot into a bathroom.
Enclosed boxes, especially those with a sloped roof, discourage roosting on top. More importantly, the best designs use a "rollaway" feature. When a hen lays an egg, it gently rolls down a slight incline into a protected collection tray, away from her feet and the coop floor. This single feature is a game-changer.
The egg is immediately separated from the hen, the bedding, and any other chickens who might get curious. This prevents not only dirty eggs but also two other major headaches: egg-eating and broodiness. A hen can’t eat or sit on an egg that isn’t there, which saves you a lot of trouble down the line.
Best Nest Box: The Ultimate Rollaway System
When you want to solve the problem for good, you look at a system like the ones from Best Nest Box. These are the "buy once, cry once" solution for the serious hobbyist. They are typically made of galvanized steel and heavy-duty plastic, built to outlast your coop itself.
The core of this system is its perfectly engineered rollaway floor. The plastic nesting pad is comfortable for hens, encouraging them to lay there, but it’s also designed to let the egg roll safely into a front or rear collection tray. The tray has a lid, keeping the eggs pristine until you arrive.
The tradeoff is cost. These systems are a significant upfront investment compared to a simple plastic box. However, the time you save not cleaning eggs and the value of every single egg collected clean and unbroken often pay for the box within a year or two. It’s for the beginner who values their time as much as their eggs.
Brower 10-Hole Nest for Larger Beginner Flocks
If you’re starting with a flock of 20 or more, a bank of individual boxes becomes inefficient. This is where a multi-hole unit like the Brower 10-Hole Nest shines. It’s a classic, durable design you see on countless small farms for a reason: it works.
Constructed from galvanized steel, these units are built for heavy traffic. They feature hinged perches that you can flip up at night, effectively closing off the nests. This is a crucial feature that prevents hens from sleeping—and pooping—in the boxes overnight, which is the number one cause of soiled nests in traditional boxes.
Be aware, this is not a rollaway system. Its effectiveness depends entirely on your management. You must keep deep, clean bedding (like pine shavings) in the nests and be diligent about closing the perches at dusk. It’s a fantastic, cost-effective solution for larger flocks, but it requires more daily discipline than a fully automated rollaway box.
Duncan’s Poultry Box: Easy External Egg Access
The single greatest convenience feature in any nest box is external access. Models like Duncan’s Poultry Box are designed to be mounted through the coop wall, with a collection door on the outside. This means you can gather eggs in your slippers without ever stepping foot inside the run.
This design is brilliant for quick daily chores and for biosecurity, as you aren’t tracking mud and germs into the coop every time you collect. Most external-access boxes are also rollaway models, combining the best of both worlds: clean eggs that are incredibly easy to collect.
The primary consideration here is installation. You have to be comfortable cutting a precisely sized hole in your coop wall. It also locks in the location of your nesting area. For those building a new coop or willing to do a small renovation project, the payoff in daily convenience is enormous.
Harris Farms Plastic Nest for Simple Cleaning
Sometimes, the best solution is the simplest. The Harris Farms Plastic Nesting Box is a straightforward, affordable, and incredibly practical option. Its biggest advantage is its material. Unlike wood, which is porous and can harbor mites and bacteria, plastic is a breeze to clean.
You can pull these boxes right off the wall and scrub or hose them down completely. This makes annual deep cleaning or dealing with a pest infestation significantly easier. The plastic is durable, and the design is simple, with a lower front lip to help contain bedding.
This is a basic box, not a rollaway. Success still hinges on keeping the bedding fresh. But for a beginner on a budget who prioritizes hygiene and ease of cleaning over automated features, this is a massive step up from a wooden crate. You can mount them individually, giving you flexibility as your flock grows.
RentACoop Reversible Rollaway for Coop Layouts
What if you aren’t sure whether you want to collect eggs from inside or outside the coop? The RentACoop Reversible Rollaway Box is designed for exactly this kind of uncertainty. Its clever design allows you to configure it for either front (internal) or rear (external) egg collection.
This flexibility is perfect for beginners. You can start with internal collection and later modify your coop for external access without needing to buy a whole new nesting box. The unit is typically made of plastic for easy cleaning and uses a gentle slope to roll eggs into a protected tray.
It’s the ideal middle-ground option. It provides the clean-egg benefits of a rollaway system and the layout flexibility that new coop owners need. You aren’t locked into one specific setup, which is a valuable feature when you’re still figuring out the perfect workflow for your homestead.
Miller Little Giant: A Durable, Basic Option
The Miller Little Giant is the workhorse of the nesting box world. You’ll find this tough, no-frills plastic box in nearly every farm supply store. It’s affordable, incredibly durable, and a perfect entry-level choice for a small flock.
Made from high-density polyethylene, this box can withstand years of use and abuse. It mounts easily to a wall and has a sloped top to prevent roosting. The design is deep enough to hold plenty of bedding, which is your primary tool for keeping eggs clean in a non-rollaway box.
This box doesn’t have any fancy features. It won’t collect the eggs for you. But it provides a dark, secure, and easy-to-clean space that hens will readily use. For the beginner who just needs something better than a five-gallon bucket, the Little Giant is a reliable and budget-friendly starting point.
Key Features in a Beginner-Friendly Nest Box
When you’re choosing your first nesting box, don’t get overwhelmed by options. Focus on the features that solve the most common problems. Your goal is to get clean, unbroken eggs with minimal daily effort.
Look for these key elements:
- Material: Plastic or galvanized metal are superior to wood. They don’t harbor mites and are far easier to sanitize.
- Rollaway Design: This is the single most effective feature for ensuring clean eggs. It’s an investment that pays for itself in time and egg quality.
- Ease of Cleaning: Look for smooth surfaces and removable components. A box that’s hard to clean will eventually become a health hazard for your flock.
- Roosting Prevention: A sloped roof or a perch that can be closed at night is essential. Preventing hens from sleeping in the nests is half the battle.
- Access: Decide if internal or external egg collection fits your coop and lifestyle best. External is more convenient but requires more setup.
Ultimately, the right box makes chicken-keeping more enjoyable. It shifts your time from cleaning dirty eggs to simply enjoying the fresh harvest from your flock.
Choosing a nesting box isn’t just about giving your hens a place to lay; it’s about designing a system that works for you. By investing in a box that prevents dirty eggs, discourages bad habits, and simplifies your chores, you’re setting yourself up for long-term success. Match the box to your budget, flock size, and coop, and you’ll spend less time cleaning and more time enjoying the rewards of your hard work.
