Broody Hens sharing the one nesting box

[Rath]

Hi fellow chickeneers, much to my delite my 11 month old cross breed hen has decided to go broodie and has been for 6 days now, she is very tollerant of my other hens laying eggs under or next to her, but for some reason my australorp hen about same age as cross breed has decided to share the nesting box with her (copycat syndrome).
I do have a seperate enclosure for broody hens which i have used successfully 2 times before, i generally move the hen and eggs to this location when im happy with the amount of eggs she is sitting on, but im NOT going to put both hens in together even though they are very accepting of each other.
Has anyone else here seen this behavior, by the way my coop has 2 nesting boxes side by side and same size, the nesting boxes are not massive so one is literally sitting on the other one!!!

 

[midget_farms]

I've not had this myself but have heard of it on here. They should both parent the chicks too if you let them stay together. Good call though on the seperate brooder.

 

[Rath]

thanks midget_farms, i decided to put the 11 month old cross breed hen in the seperate enclosure tonight with the eggs, the nesting box in there is the same size i even used the same shavings, but she would not stay there and very unhappy.
So i tried with the australorp broody and same response, so now they are both back in the coop together in the original nesting box "sigh" on the plus side at least the eggs will hatch when im on holidays from work, i am worried about the chicks being trampled or crushed by them both.