Natures Nest

We were the very first producers to introduce trace your egg for all our eggs – we print a code on your egg and you can find out which farm it came from. Simply click on the ‘trace your egg’ page, enter the code from your egg and you will see the farm your egg came from and what the farmer has done to improve the woodland habitat.

Unlike other egg suppliers we ask our farmers to stamp each and every egg as soon as it is collected, before it leaves the chicken shed. This means it is marked on the farm that produced it, not as part of some industrial process many miles from the place it was laid.

Natures Nest Eggs are Lion Quality eggs and have a best-before date printed on the shell. A simple test of freshness is to place an egg in water: if it stale, the egg will float, if it sinks, your egg is fresh. That’s because as an egg gets older, the size of the air sac increases, making it float.

When young birds first come into lay, they need time for their egg laying system to settle down. Sometimes 2 yolks are released together and combine in one egg. Very, very rarely you may even get a triple yolker!

Our hens are happy foraging in the woods but we also provide them with feed in their houses. All our diets are GM free and do not contain any artificial colourants. They contain over 70% grain, wheat, maize and soya. Some limestone grit is added to help digestion and shell formation – and we do add some extra vitamins/mineral supplements to ensure optimum health and nutrition.

Birds are naturally small, timid animals and enriching their surroundings by providing interest and cover is a huge benefit to them. That’s why we plant indigenous trees and shrubs on our farms. Having that extra cover gives them confidence and you will see them display natural jungle fowl behaviour like perching, pecking and scratching.

The type of woodland we plant contains Oak, Ash, Hazel, Aspen, Mountain Ash and many indigenous tree species that English wildlife needs for its existence. Each farm is individually assessed by the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) who prepare a report detailing which tree type is best to plant on that farm to give the best enhancement to the local wildlife habitat.

All human activity generates carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas). The carbon footprint of an activity or product is the total amount of carbon dioxide its production causes. It is something we are constantly reducing on our farms.

By using only naturally ventilated chicken houses we don’t need to use energy for fan ventilation, this can be up to 70% of a farms energy consumption. Our eggs are also sourced from small local family farms in close proximity to the packing centre cutting food miles between farm and packing centre to a minimum.