Wooden egg rejected, how else to encourage laying in box?

[EMcD]

Our 5-month-old hens have just started laying within the last week. (1 RIR, 1 speckled sussex, 1 SL wyandotte).

Many of the eggs we've found in the run, a couple in the shavings on the coop floor, and just a few in a nesting box.

We picked up a wooden egg to try to encourage them to lay in the nesting box -- for a couple obvious reasons (so they're easier to collect, they stay cleaner, and so they are less likely to get stepped on).

But for a couple days they pushed the wooden egg out of the box, even when they didn't lay in it. We kept putting it back.

Clearly they didn't think we got their point, so the next day we found the egg rolled out of the coop completely -- laying in the run. Today they've started to partially bury it under the ramp to the coop. I think it's pretty funny!

Our hens (or at least one of them) really don't like this wooden egg. Or maybe they're insulted?

We have shavings in the coop. At least one nests in it (there are round cleared patches). We also have some straw in the boxes.

Any other ideas for encouraging laying in the box?

 

[aggiemae]

Our RIR have laid all their eggs in the nest box but our Buff Orps laid her first egg on the coop floor and is now laying under a bush. Today I scooped her up when she started singing and put her in the nest box but she jumped right up on the roost and complaining so loudly that after an hour I finally gave up and opened the door. She ran back into the bushes and immediately laid anther egg in the same spot. Next time I am not going to let her out!