Is my hen going broody?

One of my hens wants to stay in the nesting boxes all of the time whether there are eggs or not. She squawks and carries on when I make her get out. I think she has even rolled eggs from one nest to another. What is going on with her?

Sounds like a broody hen to me. If she is staying in the nest boxes rather than roosting at night the chances are very high that she is broody. I've had hens who would sit on anything they could find that even remotely resembled an egg. Rocks, Easter eggs, golf balls, and even light bulbs! If you've got fertile eggs, you could slip a few under her and let her do her thing. (though this time of year I wouldn't because I have let several of my hens hatch some babies in late fall / early winter and many of them die of cold or end up with frost bitten toes... I now only allow them to hatch babies in the spring when it starts warming up. It is totally up to you though. I have had successful hatches and healthy chicks during winter, but the odds are more against the little guys during winter than in spring or summer.) To break her from her broody behavior you can place her in an elevated wire dog cage or something like that with food and water for about 5 days to a week so that air gets under her belly. That's the secret. Anyways good luck.

Thanks for the advice. Our winters can be pretty cold and I think this one is going to be bad with snow and stuff so I don't really want any little ones right now. If I put her in a crate where she gets air under her I should do that in the coop I suppose. Would that have to be day and night for a week do you think? Why would the air under her make a difference? (It's already in the low 30's at night by the way.)

Yes, you would want to put her in the coop in the kennel day and night. I honestly have no idea why the air under their belly's snaps them out of their broodiness, it just does. If you place her in a dog kennel that has a solid bottom she will just remain broody for days on end. Its a mystery to me as well as it is to you. Also, don't worry about the cold being a problem, she will be just fine. Chickens are very tough little birds. I've had hens in the "broody buster" in weather well below freezing and they were perfectly normal and healthy after being in there for a week. Just be sure she has plenty of food and water and she will be okay. If you were really concerned about her getting too cold, you could place a heat lamp in the coop or place the kennel in a warmer place like a garage or something. What breed do you have that is broody?

My experience went like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest, I put her in a wire dog crate with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop and I would feed her some crumble a couple times a day.

I let her out a couple times a day and she would go out into the run, drop a huge turd, race around running, take a vigorous dust bath then head back to the nest... at which point I put her back in the crate. Each time her outings would lengthen a bit, eating, drinking and scratching more and on the 3rd afternoon she stayed out of the nest and went to roost that evening...event over, back to normal tho she didn't lay for another week or two.

Water nipple bottle added after pic was taken:

She is a mix between a lavender orpington and a phoenix. Thanks so much for your help

Ooo I bet she's gorgeous. And anytime, good luck.