Any tips for encouraging free ranging hens to lay in their nest boxes?

[cutiepie960]

Hello,
Oh boi lots of choices & gr8 ideas the problwm with my girl is that as soon as she lays i collect the egg right away & i think she's pissed off!!! B/c i am adamant about NOT having baby chicks when she started laying it was all good! laying in one spot then as soon as i started removing the eggs daily she found another spot in the yard which i don't mind at all & was doing the same routine removing them eggs but boy as we 're speaking now she has found a 3rd spot but this tine its in a NIGHTMARISH SPOT which is at my neighbor's yard with a dog!!! So i set up a nesting box made outta cardboard box with some dried put grass & weeds with one of her old egg (i marked it "old egg") & 1 golf ball trying desperately to get her to lay there but so far to no avail... She is so very stubborn as she is a feral all day free ranger along with my rooster name Henry.... So far she's been lucky to be alive!!! Please amyone help! & i don't have a pen or a coop as both of them were strays who happen to adopt me!!!...They r like my babies now but i can't even get close to them as they will stay afar from me.... Thanks
Lila

 

[Irishsilk]

When training my young hens to lay in the boxes I leave collecting all the eggs from the boxes until bedtime. It seems that they love snuggling down onto a nest of newly laid warm eggs. It stimulates the natural desire to lay a clutch of eggs.

 

[staceyj]

Whatever cheap, free, dirty old kind of golf ball you can come up with is great. Ask your neighbors. Check out almost any yard sale. Go ask nicely at a driving range. Put on your most pitiful face. Tell them you need them for your chickens, it'll crack them up.
No one needs all the golf balls that are hoarded in America! Most are happy to give you a handful!

Don't use a real egg!
Somebody will peck it, then eat the insides out, then you'll have a whole new problem on your hands.