Broody question

[linda2012]

I'm sure that this question has been asked before but some of these threads are so long that it's hard to find the answer. So I'll ask and hopefully someone can answer it for me. Is there a certain time of year that chickens go broody? I know that silkies are great brooders and I now have 6 hens and 1 rooster but none have them have gone broody. In fact I've noticed that when I go out to the coop one of the chickens is moving the egg out of the nesting box. I'll find it on the ground or on the little ramp but it's always moved. I don't know if its getting knocked out which I thought at first, but it's happened more than twice now and the distance from the egg to the nesting box is at least 3 feet. So what the heck is going on? Oops I guess that more than one question.

 

[Judy]

Here's an article on broodies https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/broody-hens

It's possible that your hen is in the "pre broody" stage, when she is collecting her clutch of eggs, and thinks she's moving eggs to a better spot to brood them. But chickens do a lot of unpredictable things, so she could just as well be up to something else.