We have a young pullet that is 7 months old, she acts broody and will stay on the nest for a whole day at times and isn't very impressed if you try to take her eggs but she always gets off the nest like she gets bored! She's been acting strange for about 2 weeks, making a nest and I don't know if its got to do with her but all the other chickens are now laying in her nest. We have a fake egg on there but remove the real eggs because the longest she stays on is a day and we don't want to have rotten eggs everywhere, we did a keep a few there once because I read that they only set the eggs once they have a enough, there was about 7 she had under her but still didn't stay on the nest. Is she to young to go broody or does she just not know quite what to do or just acting strange?
I have had hens that do this, but they aren't really broody. I always called that "broody" until the day one of my hens actually became broody. I was convinced she was dying - she was so puffy and wouldn't even stand up when I put her on the ground. lol When we have a truly broody hen, it doesn't matter if there is even one egg under her - I've had the sit with nothing. Your hen may never get past the one day stage - I've had some like that. Best of luck!
She's not broody. She may be trying to figure it out, or she may just be a new layer and like hanging out in the nest box. Continue to take the eggs as you're doing. If you want to encourage her to brood, place a good sized clutch of fake or bait eggs there and see if that entices her. I don't consider a hen broody until she's stayed on the nest box for 2 nights in a row.
OK thanks for your information!! we don't really want her to go broody but if she wants then that's fine except the eggs where getting aren't exactly hatching standard yet as most of our herd are young pullets! From reading your replies she is probably just figuring out the laying system as she didn't turn the eggs just accepted them and sat on them :] thanks again!!