Nesting box rollaway rebuild

20+ years ago I built rollaway nesting boxes I had never built anything like that before, and used what ever scrap wood I could find. It functioned very well and lasted many years. The only real problem with it was it was impossible to clean.

2023 My son and I built  front rollaway nesting boxes. I was very happy with it. It was easy to clean and very functional, so I thought. Turns out having the eggs roll to the front is not a good design. It almost incurages the hens to break and eat the eggs.

Third times a charm, I hope. I'm not going to lie this was a simple design that I screwed up so many times. The plan was to not buy anything for the project except the 1/4" coated hardware cloth, which I decided the chickens might get there nails caught. So I had to remove it ( not an easy task) and used 1/2" coated hardware cloth. Then my son said the 1/4" plywood wasn't strong enough, and I said I wasn't structural, and didn't need to be strong, but then I worried it might not last being cleaned. I had already used it on the front, and didn't want to redo it, but I decided not to use it for the dividers. This meant taking the old nesting boxes apart (not  an easy task, I guess we built it strong) and using the wood from that. (which had to be scrubbed) I cut sanded and painted the old dividers making them work the best I could. I wanted to use something in the back of the boxes to separate the chickens from the egg collection tray.  My work sells 1/4" rolled rubber by the foot. I bought some site unseen. It was not going to work, to thick and heavy. I ended up using rubber from an old water tank membrane. It had to be cut and scrubbed. It's not what I envisioned, but will do. It took forever, and I had to use 4 fence boards instead of the pallet wood I planned on using because they weren't long enough, but I got it done. Installing it went the same as making it. My son helped, we unscrewed the front of the roof and tucked the coop chicken wire under it, and screwed it back together. the rest was stapled to frame.
Day one no one used it. I have 5 older hens that used the last one that didn't look that different from this one. I thought they would use it, and hoped the younger hens would follow.  That night I balanced an egg in the box, to help encourage them to use it. Day 2, 2 eggs. One chicken used it. I hope they will all start to use it soon.  If they don't, I may put something over the hardware cloth to make it nicer for them, at least until they get used to it. We will see.

After about a week? Only half the eggs were in the nesting boxes. Chickens are supposed to like a dark safe secure place to lay eggs. Yet some of  mine would prefer to lay in the corner open bright spot in the coop.
The only thing I could think of is they don't like the hardware cloth on the bottom. I bought some nesting box pads. They are a very thin layer of? A thin straw like substance, that is glued (I assume) to a piece of brown paper. It was the thickness that made me decide to try it. I didn't want something that would keep the eggs from rolling into the egg tray. I put them in the boxes, and they fit perfectly.
The next day all but 2 of the eggs were in the box, but so was all the straw stuff in the egg tray. Good and bad. We are going in the right direction, but the pads were almost $1.00 each. Thought I only intend to use them to get the hens to use the new nesting boxes, I still can't waist $4.00 a day doing it.  I pushed the straw stuff back into the boxes, now a wad, removed from the paper.
The next day all the eggs are in the nesting box tray, and so is the straw. I pushed the straw back into the boxes.
We will see what happens in the future. The funny thing is once the straw is off the paper it's almost nothing. Maybe it's less about comfort, and more about being able to move around nesting material, I don't know? If it continues to work, once the pads are gone, I will probably dry some thin weeds out and make my own.

That is a nice looking nesting box. I suspect you are right that they do not care for the mesh bottom. I have heard of some people using that fake grass for the bottom because it is easy to clean. Some people say it works well... but the chickens I have seen did not like it. Most commercial roll away nesting boxes that I have seen use something similar for a pad.

Today we went back to only two eggs in the box.
Before I built it I watched lots of videos, and a lot of people were using hardware cloth, and no one mentioned a problem.
I tried using the fake grass in the past, and they were eating it, so I removed it in a hurry. I did buy rubber for the flaps that I didn't use because 1/4" isn't very thick, but thicker and heavier than I wanted. If they continue to not use the  nesting boxes I may put that in the bottom . I just liked the idea of the poop falling through the holes for an effortless clean box. If I have to put something to cover the bottom, I will. Luckily it won't be a hard fix.
Otherwise it's great. It works just like it's supposed to. Clean eggs that are not broken.
Darn stubborn chickens

Thanks Matt It was one of those projects that should have been relatively quick and easy, but ended up being a total pain in the rear. I was happy with the end result. The chickens aren't impressed, oh well.
Thanks