I am totally puzzled!
I have a broody Cochin, who I tried to move to the maternity pen. When moved she didn't sit on the nest but on the roost. I left her for 3 days.
I figured maybe I moved her too soon. Put her back in her pen she went straight to the nest box she had previously occupied. I let her sit on fertilized eggs fir over a week & moved her to the maternity pen last night. Went out at 6 this am & she was not on the nest, but sitting on the roost. The eggs are cold
.
Put her back in her original pen & yes right back to her box she went.
I am at a loss!!!!!
Some broodies won't tolerate being moved.
That being said, there are some extra things you can try.
1) Instead of just moving her to a new nest, move the entire nestbox. If that's not possible (too large, attached to the coop, etc), then try to put a removable "insert" into the nestbox that she's currently using. You can use sturdy cardboard and packing tape to make a cardboard nestbox that will fit inside her current nestbox perfectly, then put all her nesting material and eggs back in. (Be sure that the box is strong enough, and taped together well enough, that it will hold at least three times her weight when picked up. You don't want to lift it up and have the bottom fall out with her in it.) Let her set on that for one day to be sure that putting in the insert didn't disturb her too much.
2) At night, pull out the entire insert and move it, leaving her in the nest in her broody trance during the move. Do not shine a light on her during the move, and stay as quiet as possible during the whole process.
3) If your maternity pen is small, cover it with a sheet and leave the sheet in place for 1-2 days, so she's in very dim light. If it's bright and sunny outside, you may need a thicker sheet or two sheets to block enough light (but be careful about overheating her also). If your broody pen is too large to cover with a sheet, set up a small, temporary run inside the maternity pen. My small run is 2'W X 2'H X 5'L and made out of welded wire. It has no floor, just the four sides and a top. Half the top is "hinged" to the other half, and can be lifted up like a hatch door. Just several flat wire panel held together with zipties (cable ties). Have bedding on the floor, her cardboard nestbox, food and water in there,
but no perches, all covered with a sheet for 1-2 days. Set it all up at night so that's how she wakes up the morning. Hopefully the light will be dim enough that she stays calm and adjusts to the new pen. After 1-2 days, start rolling the sheet back slowly, maybe just 6-12 inches a day, until the run is 1/2 uncovered. You can leave it that way until the chicks are hatched and she's ready to leave the nest, or you can continue rolling back the sheet until the run is fully uncovered. Once (if) the sheet is gone, then you can decide whether or not to remove the small run out of the maternity pen before the chicks hatch.
Eggs can tolerate being cold for a short time. It all depends on how cold, and for how long.
Brinsea, one of the top-of-the-line incubator companies, actually has a cooling feature built into their high end model incubator. Research has shown that chicks are more vigorous when the eggs are cooled a little each day during a portion of incubation (don't have the details, as I've only read the summary, not the entire article). So the embryos may have survived the cooling -- don't give up on them yet. But you do have to decide whether to leave her in her chosen nest site, or take the risk and try again to move her to the maternity pen. Good luck.