i’m not a chicken expert, but i’ve had chickens for about 9.5 yrs and i figured i would share my experience on what has worked for me. i haven’t seen or read about anyone else doing this (not saying nobody has, i just haven’t seen it) so i wanted to share. i got tired of our girls pushing the straw in the nesting boxes all to the sides and then laying the eggs on the hard box floor, so i made these little nesting box pads. they love them. i used an old ripped mattress pad and some fleece. i like that you can just throw it in the washer and dryer on high heat and kill any mites or bugs that might be living in it. i didn’t have any problems, but if your girls are scared of it, you can put an egg in it and they seem unable to resist laying their egg with it. if you found one of those soft dog beds that was the same size as your nesting box, i would imagine it would work just the same
