broody hen question

[slightlyscrambled]

okay so I have what I think is an Old English Game Bantam that went broody on 4-8-09 with 4 eggs under her. today I caught her off the nest and there are 13-15 eggs! is she still laying eggs while brooding, or is someone else getting in her box and laying. what am I going to do when they start hatching? will she continue to lay on the others or ?????? and should I move her now to a crate or just leave her be? her box is a metal nest box that has about three rows of 5. hope someone can help

 

[kuntrygirl]

I had the same problem. I have a banty chicken that I noticed that started setting. She started off with 5 banty size eggs. I noticed that one of my standard size Black Australop chicken was getting in the same nesting box with her but I never could find any of the eggs that I "thought" that she (the black australop) had laid. Well, lo and behold, I picked up the setting banty to check to see how many eggs she had under her. She is now setting on 15 eggs. 10 of the 15 eggs are standard size eggs. The only thing that I can think of is that when the standard size chicken layed her egg, my banty rolled her eggs under her and decided to set on hers (the black australop's)as well. My banty is in a nesting box, so I don't have to worry about moving her just yet. But if you decide to move your hen, you should move her at night, so not to disturb her. Keep us posted.