Are My Hens Broody???

[Mary Coleman]

So I have two hens right now that are sitting on eggs in my chicken coop. One is a Silver Phoenix hen that is not even a year old and has never gone broody before. I hear that they are good setters and mothers. The other is a black Cochin bantam that was broody seriously a month ago!!! So I'm asking if their broody because they don't seem to have the symptoms. Let me explain.
Usually when I place my hand in my broody hens nest, they absolutely freak out! But today, I placed my hand by them and they just looked at my calmly and didn't even mind me petting them! My hens are docile and tame, but usually never when their broody! Also usually, my broody hens have "the stare" where they look so concentrated and focused. But mine jut seem to be resting, looking around casually. My Phoenix hen tucked her head under her wing and was sleeping..... Has anybody experienced this??? Does sitting on the nest at night always mean that they are broody?

 

[Nava]

if they only do it at night no, they are not.

you might want to put them on their perch or the sleeping quarters so they don't poop on the nest

 

[Mary Coleman]

So why would they sleep on the nest???

 

[Nava]

don't know for sure, but they could be lower on the pecking order and therefore bullied by the higher ranking chickens, might be coming down with some thing and that's why they rather sleep in the nest instead of jumping and straining them self's, and many other reasons
or maybe she is just used to sleeping there.

try and putting her up on the perch.

 

[Mary Coleman]

My hens have never slept in the nest boxes before so it's kind of strange. The cochin was on the nest for a good 2 hrs. Before the sun went down, but the Phoenix was sitting on the roosts, jumped down, looked at the nest with about 5 eggs in it, sat down and got comfortable.... I checked about an hour later and her head was under her wing sound asleep.