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.