The "enriched cages" required will require natural or artificial grass or sand to be included in cages, imitating the birds' natural habitat, and will even require soft material – mattresses or pillows – for birds to rest on

Israel's chickens are in for a treat: the Agricultural Ministry has announced that it is choosing a hi-tech, roomy coop developed by Israeli company Agrotop as the preferred facility for growing chickens, ducks, and other egg-producing fowl. The Ministry's "Coop of the Future" features wind turbines, photovaltic cells, special egg collection chutes designed to enable birds to more easily lay eggs – and nearly double the space currently alloted to hen house fowl.

The new coop is designed to meet European Union regulations for fowl, set to go into effect by 2012. Under those regulations, producers will be required to ensure that each bird gets at least 750 square centimeters of space. Also, cages must allow birds to move around freely, enabling them to flap their wings, etc. Current EU and Israel regulations require less than 500 square centimeters of cage space per bird. In addition, the "enriched cages" required by the EU will require natural or artificial grass or sand to be included in cages, imitating the birds' natural habitat, and will even require soft material – mattresses or pillows – for birds to rest on. Israel has adopted the EU regulations as well.

The Agrotop coop contains all those features, and then some; the coop is environmentally friendly, and allows the production of energy to supply electricity for the coop in a number of ways, including through wind turbines, photovaltic cells, and recycling of bird waste into biofuels, used to supply electricity to the coop's feeding and egg collection system.

The coop itself is largely built of recycled materials. The coop was designed to have as little impact on the surrounding environment possible, one of the criteria demanded by the Agriculture Ministry.

In an interview earlier this year, company officials said they were beginning to see interest from Israeli fowl farmers, who are preparing to upgrade their facilities to correspond to the new regulations. While the new coop is more expensive than traditional coops, company officials said that they had built into the system various money-saving features that will help farmers to more quickly recoup their investment, including a refrigeration system that will keep eggs fresher longer – meaning they can be sold to stores at a greater price advantage – and the recycling system for bird waste, which will save power costs, as well as eliminate the substantial costs of removing the waste in traditional coops.