Is My Hen Broody?

Hello everyone!

I've been having a little problem with one of my chickens. A few days ago, one of my Buff Orpingtons started to spend her free time sitting the nesting box. I thought it was cute at first because she was just being a mom but now its changed. Instead of just sitting in there and laying an egg then leaving, she spends almost all of her time sitting in her nest box doing nothing. She is not laying eggs or anything. This has been the problem for the past couple days and I'm not sure why? She's not extremely broody though, she does let me pet her and lets me collect the eggs she's sitting on, but other than that she just sits there.

Today. I went out to the coop as usual to collect the eggs, and just like always my Orpington sits there as happy as can be. I picked up all the eggs then I went to get the eggs underneath her. This time she got up and walked away and joined her friends outside!
Did I just break her broodiness or was this just coincidence?

...or she wan't really ready to be broody..... many start, not all finish.

okay, but just today I took her out of her nesting box and set her outside. She just sat there on the grass. And then, about 5 minutes later, she walks back inside, stopping for a drink and a snack on the way there. I'm pretty sure she is broody now. What can I do to stop it?

Another thing, why do I have to stop it. Isn't this her choice? Its not harming anything (as far as I know).

You'll need to decide if you want her to hatch out some chicks, and how you will 'manage' it.
Do you have or can you get some fertile eggs?
Do you have the space needed? She may need to be separated by wire from the rest of the flock.
Do you have a plan on what to do with the inevitable males? Rehome, butcher, keep in separate 'bachelor pad'?
If you decide to let her hatch out some fertile eggs, this is a great thread for reference and to ask questions.
It a long one but just start reading the first few pages, then browse thru some more at random.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/496101/broody-hen-thread

If you don't want her to hatch out chicks, best to break her promptly.
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.

Ok thanks! I've heard of this dog cage method before but never tried. I don't have and roosters so no fertile eggs. sometimes she will sit on make believe eggs even after I've collected them all.