Broody Hen nesting outside.

[StarLightFarms]

I have a young chicken (born in March) that started laying recently. I noticed that she had been missing every night from the coop and that I hadn't really seen her with the rest of the flock. Long story short I found out where she's been this whole time and she had a nest under some brush in the open. So last night we put her back in the coop since its getting cold at night and a hurricane is coming later this week. She had 7 eggs under her which we candled and were surprised to find that all of them were quite far along (at least 2 weeks if not more). I put the eggs in a covered litter box in the coop with the rest of the flock and placed her in it. She was quite upset and didn't settled back on the nest. I didn't want to intervene too much and this morning when I let them out the box was tipped over(I took the cover off to see if she would go in) and a few of the eggs are now cracked....I'm assuming they have no chance of surviving now. I also discovered that she has started a new nest in the same spot shes been hiding, with one egg and another from another hen. Sorry for the long winded story but I'm not sure of what to do next since I don't want her nesting in the brush in this weather or at all because of predators.

 

[Ribh]

Can you secure the area around her @ all? An upturned dog crate or temporary fencing? She sounds like she has chosen a good spot. Otherwise you will have to break her & that can be traumatic for both you & the hen.

 

[StarLightFarms]

Can you secure the area around her @ all? An upturned dog crate or temporary fencing? She sounds like she has chosen a good spot. Otherwise you will have to break her & that can be traumatic for both you & the hen.

Update. I've put her in a small coop that I used for a broody previously (her mom). She seems much more content than she was last night when we moved her. I should've put her in there so she could be alone last night but it wasn't set up for her and it was really late by the time we got out to move her. Lesson learned, I should've listened to my gut. Hopefully she's comfy now and maybe she'll hatch some chicks!