How to make nesting boxes more attractive to your hens?

[Daisy June]

I have four hens and 7 soon to be laying pullets, I let my chickens free range and they have been laying in different spots every day, I have nesting boxes that they used to use, but don’t anymore
We have many bushes in the yard and they are really tricky to find the eggs, I have to crawl through leaves, sticks and spider webs to get to a single egg, and I recently thought one of my chickens had disappeared, turns out she was nesting in a bag of straw

What can I do to make the boxes more attractive?

My chickens free range on average two hours per day. When they are out, I leave the run door open for them to come and go from the coop as they please. I put fresh herbs and dried flower petals in their nesting boxes on top of their nesting pads. The only time I had a problem was a day that I had forgotten to open their coop door after cleaning it out. The girls were going up the ramp and turning around and coming back down over and over again. Because I still had not figured out my mistake, they took to laying their eggs under the ramp to the coop for that day alone. I was disappointed in myself and that will not happen again.

 

[Cheekychook12]

My chickens free range on average two hours per day. When they are out, I leave the run door open for them to come and go from the coop as they please. I put fresh herbs and dried flower petals in their nesting boxes on top of their nesting pads. The only time I had a problem was a day that I had forgotten to open their coop door after cleaning it out. The girls were going up the ramp and turning around and coming back down over and over again. Because I still had not figured out my mistake, they took to laying their eggs under the ramp to the coop for that day alone. I was disappointed in myself and that will not happen again.

I might try stuffing the boxes with leaf litter and nesting stuff to make them more attractive to make them lay there again
Then hopefully they’ll keep laying there until my fence is fixed

 

[Cheekychook12]

Here are the boxes

 

[BDutch]

Sorry I’ve been busy
The design of the boxes is difficult to put straw or leaf litter inside because they are designed so the eggs roll back into a tray
I’ll get some photos after I eat lunch
I’m not going to free range then again until I fix the fence, it’s always been missing a few planks but I found a one metre gap they can easily stroll through
They used the floor of there pen to lay rather than the boxes

Roll away boxes are uncomfortable.
Better make normal comfy nest boxes or stack a lot of hay/straw/leaves in them.

Broodiness somewhere outside is impossible to break if your broody is hiding very well/is lost.

 

[BDutch]

Nest boxes shouldnt be in a run were its light and bright. You could add curtains to make the nests a bit hidden/ shady.

A good place is usually in the coop, on a safe spot, not very far from their roost on a lower level.

 

[Cheekychook12]

Nest boxes shouldnt be in a run were its light and bright. You could add curtains to make the nests a bit hidden/ shady.

A good place is usually in the coop, on a safe spot, not very far from their roost on a lower level.

I can use some shade cloth to do that
I put leaf litter in one, grass in another and straw in the last, to see which they like better, they were all checked out immediately

 

[rosemarythyme]

I did do that and they layed in them but they have stopped now
I got the rollout nests because I don’t want them to go broody all the time

Do you have very broody breeds? If possible rather than rollaways could you pick up eggs more frequently so they don't stack up and tempt more broody-inclined hens to sit on them?

 

[Cheekychook12]

Do you have very broody breeds? If possible rather than rollaways could you pick up eggs more frequently so they don't stack up and tempt more broody-inclined hens to sit on them?

They’ll go broody if there’s one egg visible
I have pekins, they isn’t a broodier breed apparently
I will try to collect them more often though anyway

 

[Karlkurla Chooks]

Nest boxes shouldnt be in a run were its light and bright. You could add curtains to make the nests a bit hidden/ shady.

A good place is usually in the coop, on a safe spot, not very far from their roost on a lower level.

True, however I have two chickens who have determinedly laid their eggs in a big patch of weeds for almost a year! They are a little bit hidden but are pretty much in the full sun. They both like it there so I guess it works for them.

 

[BDutch]

True, however I have two chickens who have determinedly laid their eggs in a big patch of weeds for almost a year! They are a little bit hidden but are pretty much in the full sun. They both like it there so I guess it works for them

The only eggs I ever found in the run or on the grass definitely were oops eggs.
From a young hen caught by surprise.

The worst place one of my chickens choose in the past was inside a blackberry plot. The broody must have thought it was safe in there. But Im sure some beasts out there, might have taken her, if they knew they could grab a bite.

I took her and the nest out from the blackberry bushes bc her eggs were infertile. Unfortunately I couldn’t grab her without scratches.