broody hen? how do you know when a hen is ready to go broody, hatch eggs?

[TGRREZ]

I know some breeds will not hatch eggs if you paid them, and some LOVE it and are extremely broody. Question is, how do you know when they are ready? I don't want to let the eggs pile up in the nests and they won't get incubated because the hens are not ready. Today I went to collect and one of them was still sitting in the nest and I tried to reach under her to get the eggs and she made a hissing noise and pecked me hard! She NEVER does that. I finally got her off and she had 3 eggs under her. Another one looked dazed and confused in the corner nest then looked like she fell asleep. There were 2 eggs under her. All my hens are bantams, OEG, Ameraucana, EE, and silkie.

 

[Kelsie2290]

I usually figure they are "really" broody once they start spending the night on the nest, a lot of non-broody hens will do the flattening and hissing if they just want to lay an egg and you are bothering them. What a lot of people seem to do, and what I've found the easiest thing to do (and to waste the least eggs) is to put fake eggs in the nest and collect the real ones, mark them by date, collect as many as you want the hen to brood, then replace older eggs with newer eggs until she sets... let her sit for a few days/ nights until you are sure she is "really" broody then give her back her eggs you have collected. In case you haven't seen them, there are some nice articles in the Learning Center on broody hens.