Getting used to the nesting boxes

[the_damsel]

My chickens have had the run of my back yard until we finished our chicken coop recently. They've been laying in random places since July. Now I'd like to teach them to lay in the nesting boxes.

To teach them, the past couple of weeks I've kept them shut in the coop until most of them have laid and then I let them out in the back yard (fully fenced). This has helped a bit. Sometimes a chicken will go back to the coop to lay, but often they still lay in other places--many of which I can't find! I've made myself a crazy woman trying to find those laying spots. (I do have a big backyard)

Any ideas on how to get them to prefer the nesting boxes?

Also, they poo in the nesting boxes. I clean them daily but is that normal? Seems odd.

 

[Jajika]

The usual training method is to put golf balls or "nest eggs" in the next books "Nest Eggs" which are either wood or ceramic eggs to
fool the chickens into thinking these are other eggs.

It's kind of the standard for egg laying training.

 

[the_damsel]

Thank you! I should have mentioned I have tried the nest egg thing. Sometimes the chickens do the right thing, sometimes not. Especially one in particular!