We Compared 6 Roll Away Nest Boxes on What Lines the Floor

Why the Garvee 3-hole wins this category

Because it is the cheapest box here and it still arrives complete. At $49.49 you get three bays, galvanised steel, a removable plastic tray, keyhole slots for wall mounting, metal legs if you would rather stand it, and every fastener you need in the carton.

That last part matters more than it should. Several boxes in this category assume you own the right screws for your coop wall. This one does not, and it tells you the mounting height it was designed around, 18 to 20 in, which is the single most common reason a nest box gets ignored.

Living with the Garvee 3-hole

Steel is the right material for something that sits in a coop for a decade. It does not soften when it gets damp, rats do not chew it, and it takes a hose.

The removable plastic tray is the part you interact with daily. Eggs roll into it under cover, out of reach of a hen who has decided eggs are food, and the tray lifts out to be washed at a sink rather than scrubbed inside a dark coop with your arm at an angle. Three bays suits a flock of about a dozen at the usual one nest per four or five birds.

Where the Garvee 3-hole falls short

No pads. The floor that arrives is bare galvanised steel, which is exactly the surface hens refuse, so this is not a box you install and walk away from. Budget for nest pads and fit them before the birds ever see it, and do not reach for straw, because loose bedding deep enough to feel like a nest is deep enough to stop the roll.

The weight is the other planning problem. 22 lb of steel, plus hens, hung on keyhole slots needs a stud or a framing member behind it. Screwed into thin ply or a plastic panel it will pull out, usually in the middle of the night.

The bright metal interior is a smaller point but a real one. Hens want a dark, enclosed corner to lay in, and a shiny box lit by a collection lid is the opposite. A cheap nest box curtain across the front is a worthwhile addition.

Why the IVAHOU 3-pack earns its place

Two reasons, and both are about the floor.

It is the only pack here that gives you a pad for every bay, nine coconut fibre pads across three boxes. That removes the step most buyers discover after the box arrives, which is that a bare slope does not get used and that straw stops the roll. And it is the only box in this guide with an adjustable slope, so if pullet eggs stall halfway down or your big layers are arriving cracked, you can change the angle instead of living with it.

Living with the IVAHOU 3-pack

Being three separate units is the retrofit advantage. Coops that were not designed around a nest bank often have a window, a door frame or a roost in the way of one long box. Three small boxes go where there is room, at whatever spacing suits, and they install without tools.

ABS is light enough that mounting is not a structural question, and the bottom drainage holes mean a hose-out actually drains rather than pooling. The covered area is stated to hold 5 to 7 eggs, so a small flock does not need collecting twice a day.

Where the IVAHOU 3-pack falls short

Space and material. Each box needs a footprint larger than 14 by 12 by 12 in, and three of those spread along a coop wall take more room than one steel three bay unit does. In a small coop that can be the deciding factor.

ABS is also the softest material in this guide. In a coop with rodent pressure, plastic is something a rat can work on over a winter, and there is no metal anywhere in the build to stop it. If you have had rats in the feed, buy steel.

At $65.99 the pack works out around $22 a bay, which is dearer per bay than either galvanised steel three bay box here, the Garvee at about $16.50 and the ZUCIRE at about $21. You are paying for the pads, the adjustable slope and the tool-free fit, and if you do not need those the maths does not favour it.

Why the ZUCIRE 3-compartment earns its place

Because the hardest part of a roll away box is the fortnight after you install it, and this is the only box here that ships with the tool for that job.

Three wooden training eggs come in the carton. Wooden eggs are the right choice on a slope, since a smooth ceramic or glass egg rolls straight into the drawer and teaches nobody anything. Wedge the wooden ones at the front edge where the slope is shallowest and hens have something to find when they investigate the new box.

Living with the ZUCIRE 3-compartment

The three compartments are 10 by 12 by 13 in each, which is a sensible size for standard hens. Galvanised steel with smooth edges and flush screw holes is the sort of detail you only notice when it is missing, usually as a scratch on your forearm while you are reaching into a dark coop.

Eggs roll into a covered drawer under a protective lid, so a hen who has developed a taste for eggs does not get a second chance at them. The box will sit on the coop floor or mount inside the coop, and assembly runs about 20 minutes.

We also rate the listing itself. The maker states outright that too much straw stops the eggs rolling. That is the central trade-off of this whole category, and almost no other seller will say it.

Where the ZUCIRE 3-compartment falls short

It tells you not to use straw and then does not give you the alternative. No nest pads are included, so the training eggs are sitting on bare galvanised steel, which is the exact surface a hen would rather avoid. Add pads to the order.

Assembly is the other point. Twenty minutes with panels and fasteners is not difficult, but this is not the box to buy if you were hoping to lift a finished unit out of a carton and hang it before dark. And the 32 in overall length is one fixed run, so unlike the three separate ABS boxes in this guide it cannot be split across two walls to work around a window or a roost.

Why the Homestead Deluxe 4 earns its place

The collection design. Most roll away boxes give each bay its own little door or tray, so a four bay box is four separate reaches, four lids and four chances to knock an egg.

The Homestead Deluxe 4 rolls every egg forward under one full-length protective lid. Lift it once and all four bays are open in front of you. On a flock that fills four bays through a spring morning, that difference shows up every single day, and it is worth more than any specification on the sheet.

Living with the Homestead Deluxe 4

The frame is galvanised steel with removable washable plastic trays, which is the combination that lasts. Steel handles damp and chewing, and the trays come out to be washed properly instead of being wiped in place.

Four bays across a 42 in body is a real flock's worth of nest, about sixteen hens at the usual one nest per four or five birds. At $112.49 that is roughly $28 a bay, the dearest per bay among the divided boxes here, and what you are buying with the difference is the single-lid collection.

Where the Homestead Deluxe 4 falls short

No pads, same as most of this category. Four bays of bare metal is four bays hens would rather not use, so pads go on the shopping list alongside it.

The hen count claim needs reading twice. The listing states each compartment accommodates up to 5 hens. On four bays that reads as 20 birds, which is well past the standard of one nest per four or five hens. It does not make the box worse, but do not size your flock from that number. Count bays and divide by four.

The gap that matters most is mounting. The listing states no mounting method at all, and this is a 42 in, 24 lb steel box that will carry hens on top of that. You will be working out your own fixings and finding your own framing, and that is a job to plan before the carton arrives rather than after.

Why the FEOKUMO 6-compartment earns its place

Volume of nest for the money. Six bays at $85.99 works out around $14 a bay, which is the cheapest bay in this guide, against about $16.50 for the Garvee and about $28 for the Homestead. At the usual one box per four or five hens, six bays covers a flock of roughly two dozen birds, and nothing else here does that at this price.

It is galvanised metal rather than plastic, mounts on the coop floor or on a wall at your chosen height, and comes with a perch and a secure top lid, so the birds have somewhere to land before they step in.

Living with the FEOKUMO 6-compartment

The sloped nest floor rolls eggs into a front collection tray, so you collect from one place rather than opening six lids. On a flock this size that matters, because the whole point of buying six bays is that a lot of eggs arrive in a short window each morning.

Metal panels are the right choice at this scale. A 24 bird flock produces enough traffic and enough damp that plastic in a coop corner starts to look tired quickly, and rodents drawn by that many birds will test anything soft.

Where the FEOKUMO 6-compartment falls short

Do the arithmetic on the body. Six compartments inside a 32.6 in shell cannot be six across, because that would give each hen about five inches. It resolves as two tiers of three, and the height, 24.4 in, backs that up. That means each bay is small, and it means the upper tier needs a route for hens to get to it.

The maker's own recommendation is the honest tell here: it suits small to medium hens. If you keep Orpingtons, Brahmas or other large fowl, they will be cramped, and cramped hens go back to laying in a corner of the coop floor.

No nest pads are included either, so all six bays are bare metal out of the carton. Six pads is a bigger add-on than three, and it has to happen before the birds decide the box is not for them.

Why the HenGear roll away earns its place

It is the only box here built like permanent coop infrastructure rather than a product. Precision cut G90 galvanised steel is a heavier zinc coating than a plain galvanised panel, the roof is sloped so nothing roosts on top, and the back is hinged for roost bar access.

It is also one of only two boxes in this guide that includes anything to line the floor, in this case a full-size nesting pad that extends right into the rollout tray. That single detail removes the step that quietly defeats most roll away installs.

Living with the HenGear roll away

The reversible rollout tray is the feature a big flock will use every day. Set it to collect from inside the coop if that is how you work, or reverse it and take eggs from outside without opening the door, which in winter or in rain is a genuinely different experience.

The open bottom sits over your own floor, and the box ships flat with pre-cut, pre-punched panels, a manual and an assembly video. Expect a build session rather than an unboxing.

Where the HenGear roll away falls short

The price sets the boundary. At $345 this is close to seven times the cheapest box in this guide, and for a backyard flock of six to ten hens that money buys several three bay steel boxes with change left over. This only makes sense at scale, in a coop you can walk into and expect to keep.

The size option labelled 50 HENS is a number to leave alone. No bullet in the listing supports it, so size your purchase on the bay space you can actually see at 48 by 19.5 by 20 in, not on the label.

The community interior is the design trade-off. There are no divided bays, which suits a flock used to laying together and does not suit a hen who wants a dark private corner. Some birds will keep hunting for one.