Lil Miss Broody question

[Freya]

I have a black cochin hen who started, not too long ago, to lay one brown egg a day. She refused to sit on any of them, which is ok because we want to eat the eggs mostly. About a week and a half ago, she started laying on the eggs and won't get off except to eat a bit and go back to keeping the eggs warm, but she has stopped laying eggs completely. I have 3 nesting boxes for 2 hens. She used one and the other hen used the other one. Now, my cochin has stolen my other hens box to sit on the eggs. My other hen lays an egg in that box when she gets a chance to sneak in there and won't lay anywhere else. We left 4 eggs in there for my cochin to sit on and have to pull her out just to find the newly layed egg. lol

I guess my question is, is it normal for a cochin hen to stop laying eggs when they are broody? And if I move the other eggs to her original nesting box, will she move over so my other hen can have her box back?

 

[spikennipper]

It is normal for a broody to stop laying, once they have enough eggs they will sit for 21 days and rear any chicks and will not resume laying until the chicks are well feathered and no longer relying on her warmth which is many weeks after, I have a hen that is broody at the mo that I do not want to be! she doesn't even have any eggs to sit on, I remove them all and lock her out the nest box during the day! they are very determined, I think she will continue to swap boxes if you allow other hens to lay near by if she sees any unattended eggs she will want to sit on them and may get confused too, can you get the other hen to lay elsewhere? I take it the eggs she is sitting on are fertile?

 

[Freya]

Yes, the eggs are fertile. Our rooster keeps very busy lol! The other hen has 2 other nesting boxes she could lay in, but I only find new eggs in the box that the cochin has taken over. Is there a way to teach them to go in a different spot to lay?