Front Roll Out Nest Box

I was excited to try this roll out nesting box because I have a couple of chickens who are egg eaters and a couple that try to roost on bars or sleep in the boxes at night. I’ve been using it for about 4 months but unfortunately it hasn’t helped much with these issues. The eggs don’t always roll down into the catcher and if they do, they’re not far enough away that the chickens can’t reach them under the metal flap, especially if the eggs are big or if there’s more than one. So I’m still finding a lot of broken eggs. The other thing I was excited about was the bars that fold up so the chickens can’t get into the boxes or roost on the bars at night. While the roosting part has stopped, the bars aren’t wide enough to prevent the chickens from climbing under them and into the boxes. Finally, I suggest adding screws to the metal flaps to keep them in place. I didn’t assemble mine so I’m not sure if it comes with them or not but I’ve already had 2 flaps fall off because they were just glued on instead of screwed on. This nesting box might be great for people who don’t have chickens with bad habits but I wouldn’t recommend it for people who do, especially if you’re trying to correct/prevent the issues.

I ordered from Stromberg, but it’s supplied by Mann Lake. I gave it 4/5 stars but as roll out nest boxes go it was a great purchase. I needed to switch from a conventional metal 8 hole to roll out 8 hole due to rampant egg eating hens. I needed the convertible because my hens absolutely refused the switch the first time I tried with a different brand of roll out boxes. With this one, I made every other one roll out. I’m very slowly converting them over. The hens love the deep conventional nest boxes of this setup. Just that change greatly reduced the egg eating because the included nest boxes are so deep that my hens can’t see the eggs well. Assembly was a bit long (2 hours?) but not too bad. I propped mine up on blocks instead of hanging on the wall because I have ducks. I also left the lower roost bar off so that the ducks can climb into the boxes. I needed more to help the birds climb in, so I put grip tape on the metal roll out box so birds don’t slip on the metal. I put a bar across the front of each row of nest boxes as there is not the usual rolled edge that hens use to help themselves into the box. Lastly, I changed the upper roost bar by adding a 4 x 1 board as my hens didn’t like the narrow 2” bar that’s included. You might want to consider whether your set up needs these changes before installing and then trying to make changes!