Odd Broody Like Behavior

[Patch6713]

So I have just over year old Partridge Wyandotte. Since last fall when she started laying she has gone broody three times. The first two times we tried taking her eggs, then closing off her nesting box, then removing her from the coop and putting her in the run for the day and finally after a week each time we ended up putting her in isolation for a week. The first two times this worked.
For this third time we wanted to try and let it just ride its course because we saw people had good results with that. However, at 10 weeks in she is still sitting.
However, she is displaying, to me, non typical broody like behavior. She is not possessive at all. She allows us to go in multiple times a day and check for eggs. She at least once a day will change nesting boxes to wherever the other chickens have laid the most eggs. When we have forced her outside for a few hours or the day she hangs out with the rest of the chickens, eats and drinks, plays with the toys, harasses the ducks, but as soon as the door to the coop gets opened she immediately goes back into any of the nesting boxes and sits.
Out next step is to put her back in the isolation box but wanted to see if anybody else had any suggestions.

 

[SueT]

10 weeks is WAY TOO LONG to allow a hen to be broody. I assume she is barely eating and drinking during this period? Hens have died during prolonged broodiness. If putting her in a wire bottom cage didn't work, you could get her some baby chicks......she wants to be a mama.

 

[aart]

Huh....that is kinda odd.
So she's eating and drinking enough to be healthy?
Is she laying?
Will she stay in nest all day and night if you let her?
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?

I'd probably crate break her...might take longer after the 10 weeks deal tho.

 

[Patch6713]

10 weeks is WAY TOO LONG to allow a hen to be broody. I assume she is barely eating and drinking during this period? Hens have died during prolonged broodiness. If putting her in a wire bottom cage didn't work, you could get her some baby chicks......she wants to be a mama.

We tried baby chicks and it didn't work. She was super aggressive. Forgot to add that in the original post

 

[Patch6713]

Huh....that is kinda odd.
So she's eating and drinking enough to be healthy?
Is she laying?
Will she stay in nest all day and night if you let her?
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?

I'd probably crate break her...might take longer after the 10 weeks deal tho.

She is eating and drinking. We often see her outside on her own accord for short periods of time to get food and water however we have noticed she has lost weight.
When we put her outside she doesnt flatten out but does make the ticking timebomb sound as she walks around. She has always been a little louder than the rest of them so it wasn't of concern or notice to me initially.

 

[SueT]

We tried baby chicks and it didn't work. She was super aggressive.

 

[Patch6713]

So about two weeks ago we started to break our girl of her broodiness. Tried one day of putting ice packs in all the nesting boxes. Well, no surprise she just set up shop on the floor of the coop.
So after that we put her in "the box" for 5 days. After day 3 she got a few hours outside to free-range the yard with the rest of the chickens and then back in at night. After this we put her back in with the general population and she did fine, no more sitting, roosting at night, out in the run all day and free-ranging when allowed. However, she still hasn't laid an egg. As a reminder she was broody for about 10 weeks so would this be normal? In the past we never let her go this long and she would lay an egg in about 3 day after being in the box. Anything we should do or just let it keep riding it's course?

 

[aart]

However, she still hasn't laid an egg. As a reminder she was broody for about 10 weeks so would this be normal? In the past we never let her go this long and she would lay an egg in about 3 day after being in the box. Anything we should do or just let it keep riding it's course?

Might be because she was broody longer this time.....or it is molting season.
...or if you free range, could be laying out there somewhere.
I wouldn't worry about it too much.