Miss Broody with no eggs to hatch

[gerbera]

Hi there, this is my first post as a new member, this is my favorite site for advice, it's fantastic!

One of our hens is broody and is sitting in the nest with no eggs underneath her...I have got her off her nest twice in the evening when the others are heading up to their coop for bed, but she squawks and sqwaks and heads back to her beloved nest to keep nesting her phantom eggs. It's not a particularly sheltered nest, and it poured with rain all last night and it's still raining out there. I'm not sure what to do about it! We have plenty of hens and don't need anymore right now, so giving her some to hatch is not the path we want to go down. Ideas anyone? Thanks so much

 

[limited25]

Hi, and welcome to BYC.

Is she in a wire cage? The cage needs a wire bottom, and should be set on something to elevate it off the ground ... that way it will cool her off and break her broodiness. It will probably take about 3 days. Don't you have an old board or something that you could stick over the top of her cage to keep her dry?

 

[gerbera]

Hi there, thanks for your advice, our hens are free range, so they put themselves to bed at night in the coop we have for them, broody has built her outside and it isn't that easy to get to her to put a cover over where she is nesting.