Broody hen won't eat or drink

[attobrig]

Thank you everyone for your warm welcomes and wonderful advice. I unfortuantely have bad news though. What we thought were our dogs stealing eggs in the past has now turned out to be a very fat, large rat, which while my beautiful Whisky had finally left her nest to eat, swooped in and snatched her eggs. My husband spotted it after the dogs, previously accused of stealing, were in fact trying to chase it away

, consequently we now have a "still" broody hen, with no eggs. Although my friend has offered us more fertilised eggs for our poor girl, I am waiting on my brother in law to come and build me a proper coop to prevent any further mishaps, which I am hoping will be next week. So now I pose another question/problem. My little girl is still on the nest, should I lock her out of the nesting box to try and bring her out of her brood, or should I let her go until next week, and then put new eggs under her? Any suggestions greatly appreciated. I feel like such a failure!! Albeit a beginner, they are still very precious to me and I am only trying to do the best for my little flock. - thanks everyone

 

[attobrig]

For those who know a little about Australia, yes we have snakes here, thought I might share a visitor we had here one night when my ladies decided to stay out of their pen, luckily I rescued them in time!! Although it was harmless, a carpet python, it was huge! Around 7-8 foot long, and was in no hurry to leave, curled up on the window sill till the morning! I called the snake catcher who came and took him for a holiday - no it was not killed, just relocated!