Confused broody hen

[trainman]

I have a Plymouth Rock hen that's 9 months old. She's been broody and trying to set eggs now for about 4 weeks. I'm really happy with this as it saves me money to raise my own chickens and I'd rather a hen raise them than me dealing with hatchery chicks.

My problem is that while she's very persistent about setting she won't stay on the same nest. Every time I go in the coop she's located on a different nest. I have 10 nest boxes and 30 layers so there are lots of eggs there. I have moved her back to the original nest and she winds up someplace else. I moved her to a smaller coop and she wants in with the rest of the flock and paces back and forth between the coops. I either need to convince her to stay put or break her from her broodiness.
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Anyone had experience with something like this?

 

[Lobo123]

Yep! Her problem wasn't that she would move from nest to nest, but the other hens going into hers. They would lay their eggs in her nest or even crack some! It was just chaos.

I ended up moving her away from the coop and flock. I thought I did everything right but when I checked on her the following morning, she was off the eggs and was just standing there. I thought to myself maybe she changed her mind, decided to put her back into the flock. Nope, went back to the same spot.

I think she just gave up because I never actually did anything to break her broodiness, she just stopped sitting on them. Never hatched any eggs.

Unlike my chicken, your hen seems to be determined to hatch chicks. Hopefully, she does. Something I probably would've done differently is have her segregated in the coop itself so she can still be part of the flock. Could you probably block off the nest? Let her at least once a day so she can do her business. I'm not very experienced with broodies so take my advice with a grain of salt.

 

[centrarchid]

Isolate her with her own nest / no choice. When settles onto brooding, then provide hatching eggs and leave her alone.