how to use box from feature after creating it in db?

i must be missing something simple, i hope. i create a box, and then create a feature and export the box as part of it. the feature comes up permanently as "Overridden", and looking at the details, boxes is returning FALSE as the default rendered code (?). if i delete the box from the database, instead of picking up the definition from the feature, now it does not exist at all - yet now there is no flag raised about the box definition in the feature.

how do i get it to use the box definition from code?