Is my chicken brooding?

[wrathsfarm]

Depends on what kind of risk you want to take.
If you let her do her thing, she may not survive due to predators.

This

I'd grab her when she comes back for dinner and confine her.

I'd want to check for a hidden nest first. Taking off by herself for all day and only coming back to feed suggests a possible clutch of eggs out there, somewhere.

 

[Ridgerunner]

She is certainly acting broody, especially by disappearing at night. I assume you have a rooster so the eggs are fertile.

She has accumulated a brood of eggs by laying there for a while without a predator finding her or the nest. A predator could possibly find her at any time but many hens hide a nest and hatch eggs without a predator finding them. She is hiding the nest from predators so they can be really hard to find.

If you can locate her nest that gives you the option of trying to relocate her to someplace safe, if you want her to hatch. That generally means locking her in a place with a nest, room for food and water, and not much else. Leave her in there until the eggs hatch. Some hens break from being broody when you try this but you often have success. If you locate her nest and want to pursue this get back to us and we may be able to give you some details in how to approach it.

Otherwise I see two options. One is to let her go and take your chances. This scenario has played out on small farms for thousands of years. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Growing up on a farm we had some hens that were successful doing this.

The other option is to catch her when she shows up and break her from being broody. The way I break them is to lock them in a raised crate or cage with a wire bottom so their bottoms cool off some and leave them there with food and water but no nest for 72 hours. That's usually long enough though occasionally one needs a little more time.

Good luck with it.