Weird hen activity

[Jack765]

Will a chicken practice being broody before she will actually settle down and incubate the eggs because I have a chicken that has starting sitting on the nest box all night and most of the morning all fluffed out on the eggs but about midday she will leave the nest and carry out her daily routine without even looking at the eggs but a night she will return to the eggs an spread herself over them as if she was broody can anybody help to find out what's up with her:/

Thanks.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Some hens just aren't very good broodys, she may eventually settle down and spend the day on the eggs like she should, or she may not. If she is in the coop with the other hens, she may also be being chased off the nest by a dominant hen who wants to lay her eggs in the nest. Do you want her to hatch eggs? Have you been leaving her or other hens eggs in the nests?

 

[Jack765]

I would very much like her to hatch eggs this year and I have put about 7 golf balls in the nest to encourage her but she keeps leaving them after about half a day.

 

[Farm Girl83]

I had 2 dark brahmas go broody, 1 kept it up for the better part of 3 months. They began in January, and I didn't want to put eggs under them that soon. I gave both of them 6 eggs each at the beginning of March. They were consistent in setting on the eggs, but both froze them on day 12 by going to another box. I'm in central kansas and we had a major cold spell, wind chills down to -20. One broke her broodiness after that, but the 2nd is still at it. I have a naked neck that has gone broody, so I ordered more eggs to try her out. I put 2 eggs under the dark brahma, and 2 under the naked neck. Within 6 hours of putting the eggs under them, the dark brahma had moved off her eggs. I put her 2 under the naked neck, and she is on day 14 of incubating them and they are alive and well. The dark brahma is still brooding, but won't set consistently on eggs. Some girls just don't make good mothers even though we want them to. Maybe isolating her to a brooder pen would help, I am new to this, and spent a good chunk of money on the eggs that the first 2 girls froze, I don't want you to do the same thing.

 

[Jack765]

Thanks for the help we've kept chickens on our property in cheshire uk for many years now about 17 years but over the tears we've changed the sorts we've kept.
We first started of with some bantams about four that we kept just for eggs but after keeping them for about two and a half years somebody we still don't know who dumped a rooster on our property so he ended up with the hens and before we knew it we had to many hens for the coop and to many to feed so we gave them to a friend who still has some of the descendants of the four hens and rooster to this day.
After a short break my uncle (who breeds chickens for a living) offered us a coop and two young light sussex bantams so we had them off him they laid well and didn't ruin the grass to bad but the same sort of thing happened to these as well a friend who had a large flok had way to many roosters and hens for his space offered a rooster to us so he wouldn't have to kill it so we took him in. Long story short they bread many times had lots of chicks but unfortulty they all died but one wo turned out to be a rooster
So after they died we built a large coop with a huge grassed area out back and bought some black rock , warren , and marren chickens that we still keep today we got a rooster from a friend who is a farmer and the black rock when broody last year and hatched out 9 chicks (many we gave away) so we've had a lot of experience with broody hens and spent a lot on feed!!