We put broody hen into a brooder in the barn. It has a nice, sheltered nest area in it and it is 6’x3’. Our broody was stressed when we did this AND opened to door into a sectioned off area of the run (flock could come up to the fence). She just couldn’t settle when she didn’t have chicks to tend to, and was separate from the flock. So, the next time she went broody (and we were scheduled to pick up chicks 2.5 weeks later), we allowed her to set in the nest box in the coop until 3 days before the chicks arrived. We then moved her to the brooder, covered the HWC lid with a large towel (only over the half with the nest box) to create a dimmer environment. We did not give her access to the run, but put food and water in there for her. She settled and successfully adopted the chicks.
If we were to allow her to hatch eggs, I would not let her out of the brooder for a few days (keeping it dim) so I could assess how deeply broody she was. I would let her out before the flock was out in the run since that separation stressed her out when she could see but not join the flock. However, this girl always fits right back into the flock -no problems- when she’s done raising chicks in the brooder (twice raised chicks).
