Help! Runaway hen

[Mississippiwoman]

Hi there. Hoping someone can help me on this cool site!
I got seven hens a month ago, two of them laying. They free-range all day and had laid their eggs in the barn. Now one has decided she wants to nest and had the eggs somewhere on 5 acres and has come back for food and water every other day. I caught her in the barn yesterday but she escaped so what do I when she gets back? Just let her ride it out for a month and sit on rotten eggs?

Thanks for the tips!

 

[detali]

Leave her alone. She will probably come back with a bunch of baby chicks trailing behind her.

Or you could follow her back to her hidey nest and wait until after dark and bring her and her eggs back to the barn and put them in a safe hatching nest. But do it in the dark and keep her hatching nest in the barn in the dark for a few days until she gets used to the new location.

 

[Mississippiwoman]

I'm new to chicken life, but I do know it takes a rooster to make babies!
If they were fertile, I would just let her hang out wherever she is, but I'll probably be able to find her from the rotten smell before long!
Also, I'm not getting eggs, which was the whole point of me buying her!
That's why I wondered if I should try to catch her and make her go in a cage (a hard trick indeed) for a few days?

 

[nwgirl]

Here's a thread on how to break a broody hen...
www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=181289

 

[Mississippiwoman]

Thanks much! Now if I could just find that nest or catch her....