Gravid females
 

Hi I have to girls that have been digging on and off for a week ,one has been mounting the other girls inbetween digging .the trouble is they are digging on the lawn and not getting any where as the soil is rock hard clay .I've made a make shift small area for them , and 3 of my tortoises have layed there in last few weeks , I've put some of the grass that they have been scrapping away on too of my nest site to encourage them and I have poured hot water there also .any tips on what I can do please.

Two of my females do the same, they prefer hard soil to dig their nests in. And have done for the last 10yrs or more:0)
I have not had a problem with any of them laying. One has even tried to dig a nest on concrete, obviously it didnt happen. But she laid in the rock hard lawn eventually:0)

You just have to be patient until they get the message that they will have to use either the nest site or somewhere where they can get their feet into. Once they are digging you could try gently moving them to the better site and very rarely they will carry on digging. After about three weeks I managed to get one of my hermanns to move from the paving stones to a softer site and eventually she laid her eggs.