I’m not sure who’s smarter, the chickens or me. I can say that chickens are tenacious. I went through many gyrations trying to get the girls to roost in the roost box.
After all the different scenarios of trying and no success, I started heading out at dusk and manually placing the girls inside the box. It took several nights, but finally, one evening I trudged out thinking I was going to have to corner and capture them yet again, and magically, they were right where they were supposed to be- safely in the roost box.
Success at last.