Broody hen issues

[biscuit7]

I'm on my 6th broody of the season. I didnt realize until 2 days ago one of the hens I hatched last year had laid her own nest under one of our brush hogs. My son found it and let me know. She had 20 eggs! All but two were brown, so most were hers but another hen also found it at some point.
I candled the eggs and decided to move her and the eggs to the barn and split the eggs between her and another broody who didn't have eggs yet.
I tried my best but sadly neither took to their new nests. I dont have an incubator since my broodies do the work for me (and I hate messing with the light since they're so efficient!). I gave it two days and cracked the eggs open. One was a dud but 18 had chicks at day 12 development. I feel terrible and am second guessing my choice to move her. Maybe I could have just marked the eggs and checked daily? Obviously there's no going back now but it would be good to know for next time.
So now my question is, what will she do? If I don't break her will she probably start laying a secret nest again and try and hatch more chicks? Is it up in the air? Someone somewhere mentioned chicken depression? What does that even look like? Thanks in advance!

 

[azygous]

Eggs or no eggs, if this renegade broody is still in her broody hormones, she will attempt to continue to sit on the nest under the brush hog. If you've removed that nest, she may just make another one. It wouldn't even need to have any eggs in it for her to sit contentedly in it for then next couple weeks.

It's the broody hormones rather than the eggs that compels a hen to sit in a nest. If you don't wish for her to continue her folly, it'd be best to confine her to the coop so she at least engages in this activity where you can find her. That goes for any hen that is laying eggs any place other than the coop. This is where the term "cooped up" comes from. Confining hens to a coop for several days will retrain them to use the nest boxes, or it should.

There is also the option of using a broody breaking cage to halt the broody hormones to get this hen back to normal. It takes a few days day and night in the cage, and the hormones will have dwindled. In about a week after that, she should be laying normally again.