Will chickens sit on eggs to keep them from freezing even if they're not brooding?

[Shadow-Kitty]

We had a Luci for years. Loved the heck out of her and still miss her. Luci was supposed to be short for Lucibelle, ended up being Loosie short for Loose Screws or Lucifer, the devil creature. She was a cat, but I've side-eyed any animal named Lucy ever since. They all seem to be a bit different...

I had some young chicks (~6m) that spent their nights and a fair bit of their days in the nest box for several months. They kept the eggs warm, so I just kept collecting daily. They mainly wanted a secure place to sleep and the hens were running them off the main roost.

Who knows exactly what goes through the mind of a chicken?

Lucy was given her name as a matching set with another easter egger named Susy. That one turned out to be a rooster and not a very good one. As a result Susy graduated to our dinner plate. Lucy is a perfectly fine chicken. Not aggressive but not friendly. A pretty typical chicken.

The 6 month old hen is the only one of her age. She's from a batch of chicks I hatched for Lilly last summer. Unfortunately half of them got picked off by a skunk I was never able to catch. Same one also ended up taking a few of my adult hens as well. Out of the three that survived she was the only hen. I still have her brothers but they will also be joining the stew pot soon. I don't need the extra roosters. My flock and land isn't nearly big enough. Peace seems to reign for now but I don't expect it to last. She seems to be plenty well integrated with the rest of the flock. I see her hanging around her dad and his favorite hens the most but she will splinter off and hang out with her brothers as well. For now I could just use the warm bodies. Due to that skunk I ended up going into winter light on birds to keep each other warm. Hence the heat light.