Broody Silkie help - ate an egg

[NarrawalleeChickens]

Hey guys,

New chicken owner here looking for some broody hen advice.

My Silkie "Crumpet' has gone broody, and I'm pretty sure her eggs are fertile (we had a young rooster up until a few weeks ago and I have checked some of the eggs and they appeared to have the characteristic 'bullseye'. I was hopeful that she was going to become broody so left a bunch of her eggs in one of our two nest boxes. Four or five days ago she went up to bed early without having her afternoon porridge (usually her fave) and sat on the nest of eggs all night and didn't get up in the morning. She was on her eggs until late in the morning when our noisy boss hen got in the nest boxes and started making a racket. Crumpet came in and out of the nest box a few times and the other hen was trying to get in her nest so I decided to move her to a spare small coop I have. She happily sat in there on the eggs but didn't get in and out much. She seems a bit distressed with her new housing situation now and has been having trouble re finding her nest after a wonder. She didn't get off her nest at all yesterday so I fed her some meal worms, corn and water by hand which she ate. This morning she came out of her coop and into her small run and seemed distressed that she couldn't get out to the wider garden where the rest of the chickens were. I went to open the door so she could come out to the greater garden and she walked back inside her little coop. When I went and checked in the coop she was gobbling down one of the eggs in her nest. I got her out and cleaned out the box and such, she had a run around the garden and some snacks and then I got her back into the coop and she sat on the eggs. She was sitting on 9 and now she is on 8.

My main question is what to do? Should I be concerned she ate an egg. Should I be moving her back with the other birds? They seem to bully her more in the garden now as they have kinda forgotten her. When she wants to return to her eggs she often goes into the main coop and sits in there and I have to move her. I'm worried about leaving her in the main coop as I have two other laying hens and only two nest boxes and one of the other hens is loud and bossy. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. The small coop I have her in at the moment is an omlet eglu, see image below - its similar but has a smaller run. Its pretty small and not much space for her to scratch around but I leave the door open to the run so she can get out in the day.

Thanks a lot!

 

[NarrawalleeChickens]

Additional info: I've had her for about a month. I got her off a local man who said she had raised a few clutches previously. She has settled in with my other flock really well and has seemed super happy. She is back sitting on her eggs now. We usually let the chickens free-range the yard all day. It is winter here in Australia and temps range from about 8°C (46°F) at night to 15-20°C (59-68°F) in the day. Here are some photos of our big coop and the coop she is in. I would really appreciate any advice on whether we are doing the right thing and whether we should be taking her off the nest daily or just letting her do her own thing.

 

[NatJ]

I would really appreciate any advice on whether we are doing the right thing and whether we should be taking her off the nest daily or just letting her do her own thing.

If she's coming off the nest to eat and drink--then just let her keep doing that. She probably knows best

Some hens will sit on the nest and starve to death, so those ones do need to be taken off daily so they'll eat and drink. If you see her off the nest to eat and drink, or if you feel her crop and find food in it, then she's fine. (But if you never see her off, and if her crop is always empty--that's when you'd need to intervene.)