Hen sits on eggs like shes broody then stops

[carlyt]

She's the only hen that lays brown eggs. Over the last couple weeks I have thought she has been broody multiple times. She is still laying eggs and hasn't stopped.
What could be happening here. She's sitting on a couple eggs, hers included. Then doesn't sit overnight. I understand they can breaks during the day and stuff. I think she's broody, put the eggs in want under her. Then she abandons them.
Picture of different hen and chicks.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She's the only hen that lays brown eggs. Over the last couple weeks I have thought she has been broody multiple times. She is still laying eggs and hasn't stopped.
What could be happening here. She's sitting on a couple eggs, hers included. Then doesn't sit overnight. I understand they can breaks during the day and stuff. I think she's broody, put the eggs in want under her. Then she abandons them.
Picture of different hen and chicks.

Doesn't sound broody if she's not sitting overnight.

Where is she sitting during the day? Could she just be taking a rest, avoiding a rooster or??

Check her over for lice/mites, see that she's eating/drinking well. Make sure her crop is emptying overnight.

Observe to see if she's being bullied/kept from food, avoiding the flock/hiding out, etc.

 

[carlyt]

Doesn't sound broody if she's not sitting overnight.

Where is she sitting during the day? Could she just be taking a rest, avoiding a rooster or??

Check her over for lice/mites, see that she's eating/drinking well. Make sure her crop is emptying overnight.

Observe to see if she's being bullied/kept from food, avoiding the flock/hiding out, etc.

I will check her for all of those things tonight... I found her in there overnight last night. This morning she wasn't and a diff hen was in the nesting box laying. Do you think brown egg hen is getting out of the box to let the others lay then goes back in there?
That would make sense why i see her out and about every morning, and maybe its a coincidence why i sometimes see her on the nest and sometimes not.
She just confuses me a bit, because the last handful of broody hens youd have to pick them up to move them to collect the eggs and they would go right back in. They wouldnt spend much time off the eggs, or get kicked out by other hens.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I will check her for all of those things tonight... I found her in there overnight last night. This morning she wasn't and a diff hen was in the nesting box laying. Do you think brown egg hen is getting out of the box to let the others lay then goes back in there?
That would make sense why i see her out and about every morning, and maybe its a coincidence why i sometimes see her on the nest and sometimes not.
She just confuses me a bit, because the last handful of broody hens youd have to pick them up to move them to collect the eggs and they would go right back in. They wouldnt spend much time off the eggs, or get kicked out by other hens.

How hot is it where you live?

I have had a broody stay off the nest during the day when the weather was very hot, but she'd stay near her nest and keep most of the hens away from the nest.

Is your hen walking around clucking/puffing up and overall grumpy even when off the nest?

If it's not really hot, then my broodies will scream bloody murder and not leave the nest when another hen approaches/gets into the nest with them.

Is your hen getting pecked really hard to leave the nest?

 

[K0k0shka]

There is such a thing as incomplete broodiness, where a hen will display broody behaviors to a degree, but not be fully broody and committed. I have one like that, she's really confusing (and confused).

The thing is, chickens are SO far removed from what nature intended, that they've lost a lot of their instincts along the way. They have been extremely heavily selected by people for qualities that people want out of them - maximum number of eggs, maximum meat, pretty colors, etc. And any time you have heavy artificial selection pressure like this, you lose something along the way. Chickens' reproduction is completely unnatural at this point. What other bird lays eggs continuously like that? Normal, wild birds have a breeding season, lay a handful of eggs, raise the chicks, and are done for the year. But we have twisted nature into giving us an egg pretty much every day, year-round. And that's not the only way we've broken chicken reproduction. A lot of hens will never go broody in their lives. In nature, their lineage would get wiped out. There's no such thing as not reproducing in nature. Broody hens will often kill their chicks for no reason. Again, not something you'd see in nature, to this degree. Hens will also kill other hens' chicks raised within the flock - within their own social group. No sane social animal does this. The point being - chicken reproduction is all kinds of F-ed up, by people's selection processes, and cannot be relied on. Some hens go broody and do a good job sitting and raising chicks, but a whole lot fail all along the spectrum from sitting to raising. Some aren't committed and will abandon the eggs. Some will move to a different nest. Others will sit on some days, and forget the eggs on others. Some will sit during the day, but not at night. Etc. etc. etc. Having a good, reliable broody is priceless, because so many of them can suck in so many different ways. So using a new broody is always a gamble. Yours sounds like she's not a good choice, so don't give her fertilized eggs to sit on. Break her if she's getting too carried away. If there's no danger of her getting malnourished or overheated, then you can leave her to her ambivalence.