Hen trying to broad?

[Disjewel1]

Hi all,
We have 3 Buff Orpington hens that are almost a year old and the last two days 1 of the hens has pretty much stayed in the coop on 1 egg 1 day and 2 eggs another day. I think she is trying to hatch them HOWEVER we have no rooster so there wouldnt be anything to hatch. We keep taking the eggs out but as soon as someone lays an egg she is on it. What do we do? Is this ok? I worry about her not going out to free range and eat.
Thank you all for any advise.
Concerned in Maine

 

[sourland]

Unless you want to get some fertile eggs for her or some chicks to foster, cage her away from her nest site to break her broodiness.

 

[Disjewel1]

Unless you want to get some fertile eggs for her or some chicks to foster, cage her away from her nest site to break her broodiness.

Thank you, great ideas! So I take it this is kinda common even though we dont have a rooster around?

 

[aart]

Broodiness can happen without a male present.

These are my go-to signs of a broody hen:
Is she on nest most the day and all night?
When you pull her out of nest and put her on the ground, does she flatten right back out into a fluffy screeching pancake?
Does she walk around making a low cluckcluckcluckcluckcluck(ticking bomb) sound on her way back to the nest?

If so, then she is probably broody and you'll have to decide how to manage it.


If you don't want her to hatch out chicks, IMO it's best to break her broodiness promptly.
My experience goes about like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest (or as soon as I know they are broody), I put her in a wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller wire(1x2) on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop or run with feed and water.

After 48 hours I let her out of crate very near roosting time(30-60 mins) if she goes to roost great, if she goes to nest put her back in crate for another 48 hours.

Tho not necessary a chunk of 2x4 for a 'roost' was added to crate floor after pic was taken, gives the feet a break from the wire floor and encourages roosting.