[Stereo]

I've just converted our Light sussex house to rollaway. It's one of the standard little houses you get with the nest boxes on the side and a lift up lid. We've had massive problems with crows getting in and stealing the eggs and also hens sleeping in the next boxes so lots of mucky eggs too. So, I cut out the lowest plank at the back of the next box and built on a second compartment with a lift up lid. In this I put some foam to stop the eggs. I then made new bases for the nest boxes with some OSB board and played around with the angles so that 90% of eggs would roll out and into the foam compartment. I made this plenty deep so that the eggs would roll away out of sight and not be peckable.

So far so good and eggs are coming out generally clean. However you can't get straw to stay in the boxes, they just kick it through the hole and I've noticed that a lot of eggs have damaged ends, presumably from landing on the board. A couple have broken on landing too and that makes a right mess as it all runs into the tray. I've heard of people using astro turf etc. on the floor but have also seen proper material like a perforated mat in pro systems. Any ideas?

[artscott]

How about that plastic non slip matting they sell for use in brooders to stop chicks splaying thier legs.  It should be just thick enough to stop dings in the eggs, but thin enough to keep them rolling.
 
Jist had another thought, what about the bubble wrap with the small bubbles if you need something thicker?

[Stereo]

Thanks. I've got bubble wrap but I think they will just tear it up. I've tried using quite tough foam liners from our meat boxes and they wreck that. I've haven't got around to it yet but as there are free sitting boards in the bottom of the boxes I might try stapling some foam or bubble onto that and then wrapping a thin old hand towel around it and stapling tight. That could then be changed and washed if needed.