Need help! 1st broody to hatch in a few days!!!

[ther00ster'scr0w]

So one of my older hens when broody secretly, and I have candled her eggs and there seem to be a good amount (around 8) eggs developing. The problem is...I am not really 'allowed' to hatch eggs, and it seems some of my other hens go ONTOP of the broody hen, and lay their eggs on her, and the broody takes the egg under her!!!
Has any one ever experienced this? it seems this hen has done this quit a few times, as now the amount of eggs has mysteriously grown.
This is the hen in her next box:

From a posting I did earlier, I've decided to take out the two dividers near her, and cover the front with chicken wire (the lid is able to open). I planned to do this later, but now it seems I must soon so the other hen won't lay any more eggs on her!!!
--So will the hen be able to recognize the food/water I will put in the section (a combo of all 3 in the pic), or does she need more room when she leaves her nest?

ANY help/advice will be greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!!

**I'll try to post pics of the hen laying her egg on the broody for some fun when I can

 

[stumble_n_mumble]

sounds like to me you are going to do the right thing! the wiring is great! and im sure that is enough room and she will get the hint if you put water and food in there. good luck!!

also, all the hens do know when i hen goes broody and they do lay eggs on top of each other all the time! it gets pretty annoying!! you will have to separate her otherwise when your broody's beginning eggs start to hatch she will stop being broody after about 2-3 days to start tending to the chicks. so the chicks will die in the eggs anyway if there hatch date is too far away!

 

[ncarper]

I had the exact same problem a couple weeks back. When I first realized I had a broody hen she had about 6 eggs under her. I planned on isolating her, but procrastinated, and before I new it she was sitting on 14 eggs. I ended up isolating her inside a wire cage I placed in the chicken house. She hatched out 4 chicks and then decided she didn't want to set anymore. I placed the remaining 10 eggs in the incubator. I hatched out 5, lost 2, and 3 were infertile. As for food and water, I placed some in the cage with her and it worked out fine.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yeah, you have a problem with a staggered hatch. Unless you have an incubator or another broody hen, you are likely going to lose some that were laid late.

What you plan to do sounds like a very good thing. It should be plenty of room. It will certainly keep the problem from getting worse. Just be ready to clean some pretty stinking poop out of there. They hold it for a long time, then when they let go!!!

You have gained a lot of experience with this hatch. The next one will go better and this one is not a total disaster. You have a great chance of getting several nice chicks out of it. I'll give you a link that may help you some on this hatch but may help more on your next one. I know you are not supposed to hatch chicks, but I'll give it to you anyway.

Isolate a Broody? Thread
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=213218