Thank you for the responses. I am thinking of putting a bale of hay under the nest box to help break the fall if they get out. I'm am concerned that she will abandon the eggs if I relocate her and nest so I probably won't move her. Maybe once the chicks hatch I will move them.
The broody I referenced earlier started out in my main hen house in one of the nesting boxes. This stressed the others so much that they started laying outside the nesting box or would run her out of the prime box and lay eggs on top of hers then she would get back on her ever growing clutch. So I tried to move her, putting her initially in a kennel cage inside a pen in my barn. She wouldn't stay on the eggs even though she was locked up with them, and as soon I opened the door, she flew the coop, and went back to the original house and box. So I moved her to a house with an identical layout, put 4 eggs in each nesting box so she could choose her clutch, and locked her up in there overnight. The next morning she had chosen, so I removed the other eggs. Since the house was well ventilated, I opted to leave her closed in the house which has a skylight in the top, leaving food and water inside.
I definitely understand not wanting to move her, because I have twice had them leave their eggs when moved. The first time it happened was with a broody who chose a nesting box. When we moved her at night and put her and her eggs in a nice pen, the next morning she had chosen another spot and left her eggs behind. I had to put new eggs under her and start over. I took a cardboard apple box, cut a opening for a door in one end so she could exit if she wanted, and just sat it over her so she would have a dark quiet place. So she incubated her eggs on the ground, hatching 11/11 eggs and raising 9 chicks(one died for no apparent reason, and one got suffocated on a cool night, I think, because we found the dead chick in the bedding the next morning.
I love broody raised chicks, no heat lamps, no pasty butt, no sick ones. Proof that Mama does it best! My only problem with broody hens has been the very first hen who raised the 9 babies disappeared 2 weeks after leaving her first brood, and we found her 10 days later on another clutch. She was in a safe place just outside the barn where she had incubated her first brood(I think she knew the barn was where she was supposed to be), so we left her there because we could watch her. A few days later, she was at the back barn door sporting 4 new baby chicks, which she still hasn't left, even though she has integrated them with the rest of the flock. I had to separate her from the first brood, and I am thinking I may have to do it again. I think she likes being a Mom, but two broods in one summer is a bit much....She is a BCM, who are described as "frequent, sometimes too frequent", brooders. She is living up to their reputation. The other broody is a BCM too.
