looks like a great setup. love the milk carton dispensers/food trays. let us know if it works, I have a hen trying to be broody and it is wearing me out to keep booting her outI had to jail one of my barred rocks...the charge: attempted brooding. I put a 1/2 inch hardware cloth "floor" in an old dog crate I turned upside down. The very open (now) ceiling, I covered with 1/4 inch hardware cloth. The two milk cartons are for food, one for dry and one for fermented feed in the morning. I sure hope it cools her off enough to break her.
My hens seem to leave the nest longer than I would think they should. This is your hens' first time at being broody. When my BCM hatched their first, they killed all the babies. Last year they did so much better.I'm curious for those who have broodies before. Twice she has been out in the yard foraging in the morning then gets and stays put for days. Is that what your broodies do? I know she will get off but she was probably out for half an hour. Of course there were no eggs in the nest either. Perhaps she figured the golf balls were not real?
Getting ready to turn this:
Into a new chicken house. Keep us posted! I'm so excited to see what you do with it!
Plus - you said that you have crows. Crows WILL catch and eat little chicks and very easily if they get separated from We have 7 crows that frequent our yard daily. Today a heron flew over, sort of rare right here and the sentinel crow in the top of the tree sounded off for a long time, a week or so ago, 3 crows chased a hawk for a long time in the sky. It was amazing. I would think almost anything would try to get the baby chicks.
I caught her put her back in the Rubbermaid container with the opening facing the wall so she can't get out. I'll turn it later when she settles down. I'm hoping once she warms the eggs up she will stay put especially with it being dark out. 
Well I put Lucy in the old run with her fertilized eggs. She got off and went to eat & drink. I went to my friends hoping she would settle down and go back on the eggs. When I got home she was roosting on top of the shavings bale. So thinking she likes a covered nesting box like she usually sits in I quickly made her one out of a Rubbermaid container. (Like the one Leah's mom has posted pics of) Threw the shavings and eggs in it & put her in it. She promptly ran out, out the open run door and tried to get in the coop.I caught her put her back in the Rubbermaid container with the opening facing the wall so she can't get out. I'll turn it later when she settles down. I'm hoping once she warms the eggs up she will stay put especially with it being dark out.
Do you guys think she would do better in her normal nesting box brooding her eggs? Or maybe in the normal coop in the Rubbermaid container? She's used to having the other hens around and in & out of the nesting box all day laying eggs with her.
