Chickens won't stop sitting on the nest. NEED HELP

[AUSAmature]

So, a bit of background for the past few weeks, when this problem started.
With 8 chooks, and only 3 people in the family, we have plenty of eggs. So sometimes we go a couple of days without picking up the eggs from the coop. It's not normally a problem. If a chook starts sitting on them, they stop when the eggs are gone.
Two of my Bantams, however, have gone a bit far, and it is concerning.
They started by sitting on the eggs together. I thought it was cute, that these small chooks were helping to sit on a surprisingly large pile of eggs. The next day they were sitting again. There was only a couple of eggs, so I wondered why they were both sitting.
This went on for a week or so, the eggs slowly decreasing in number as the other chooks started laying in other nests. Yet these two continue to sit.

At this point, I am very concerned.
They sit all day, every day. I have to pull them out of the nest, to their very vocal objections, and put them directly in front of the food before they start eating. It's been days since I've seen them out looking for bugs, and I'm worried that their health will suffer because of this bad habit.
I tried pulling them off every time I saw them, but they keep getting back on. I tried closing their nest, but they simply took another.
At this point, I have closed all nests, and have forced them out of the coop.
I know that the other chooks have another nest that they often lay in, but I'm worried that in the absence of the coop, they will start hiding their eggs again.
If this is a problem for anyone else, I need help!
I've tried all I can think of, but nothing is working. The last thing I want is for these two to get sick and die, because I failed to see the warning signs of this problem weeks ago.

 

[Ribh]

There are a lot of threads on how to break a broody hen.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threadloom/search?query=How to break a broody hen&tab=618

 

[Perris]

hello @AUSAmature ! welcome to BYC
As Ribh said, there's lots of advice on this site about breaking broodies (getting your girls to stop sitting). If you have a dog crate you can put them temporarily, it would let you open up the nests again for the others, who will find other places to lay if they can't get in, as you thought.

 

[aart]

If you don't want her to hatch out chicks, best to break her broodiness promptly.

My experience goes about like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest, I put her in a wire dog crate with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop or run with feed and water.

I used to let them out a couple times a day, but now just once a day in the evening(you don't have to) and she would go out into the run, drop a huge turd, race around running, take a vigorous dust bath then head back to the nest... at which point I put her back in the crate. Each time her outings would lengthen a bit, eating, drinking and scratching more and on the 3rd afternoon she stayed out of the nest and went to roost that evening...event over, back to normal tho she didn't lay for another week or two. Or take her out of crate daily very near roosting time(30-60 mins) if she goes to roost great, if she goes to nest put her back in crate.
Chunk of 2x4 for a 'roost' was added to crate floor after pic was taken.

 

[Bookmole353]

I am having a problem with one of my buff Orpingtons. After a few days of her “brooding” an empty nest. I have been taking her out of her nest. And making her go out. I am going to try the cage trick. Hopefully that works. She doesn’t want to leave the nest.

 

[sourland]

To the OP. As others have inferred your hens are broody. They want to incubate and hatch those eggs and become mothers. They will not lay again until they get over their broodiness.

 

[Bookmole353]

I keep trying to make her move and it seems she is weak. What to do?

 

[Bookmole353]

To the OP. As others have inferred your hens are broody. They want to incubate and hatch those eggs and become mothers. They will not lay again until they get over their broodiness.

I know she won’t lay but I don’t want to lose her either. I am going to try to get her in a cage but need stuff my son has.

 

[want2know]

I have a bantam Cochin that went through months of chronic broodiness. We tried everything we read about, but had little luck. We put her in a cage, with a branch for a roost, and took her outside twice a day to forage for 1/2 hour to an hour depending on the weather. We encouraged her eating. Fed her treats we knew she liked, applesauce, yogurt, coconut oil, meal worms, along with her food. In the middle of the summer we bought two new chicks that were just beginning to get their feathers. We would put them in the cage and put our broody hen outside the cage right next to it. At first she wasn't interested, but we kept up the routine and finally she came to enjoy sitting next to the cage. She watched them grow and they became familiar with her. Now she is happy and laying(when its not cold) and has not been broody in months. She loves her new little flock that she thinks she raised.

 

[Bookmole353]

Our local farm store won’t have chicks until feb sometime. I am taking her off her nest and won’t let her back in the coop until she eats and drinks. We even checked her for egg binding. She is such a good layer and hen too. I keep eggs out from under her but she goes right straight back to it. I don’t have a crate but I do have a plastic kennel. Think that would work?