Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

I have 2 hens brooding in empty nests ... they aren't laying ... about a month now ... probably should have caged them by now but I don't like doing that. They're eating, drinking, etc. normally ... very docile and when I go to the nests they stick their butts in the air. I've been taking them out of their nests as many times as I can during the day ... not helping. Thoughts? Thanks for any advice!

I’ve been putting mine in an empty cage with NO bedding
Seems to work so far

Well, if you don't want to use a broody breaker (an uncomfortable cage), you have a couple of options. You can buy a couple of new hatched chicks to stick under them (at night), you can give them some fertile eggs to hatch, or you can wait it out. As long as they're getting off every day to eat, drink and poo, they will be fine. Once the days start getting short, they should naturally snap out of it, at least for a while. Though some really hormonal birds will snap out of it just long enough to lay an egg or three, and then go right back to sitting...Silkies can be bad for this. I've only ever had one Silkie. She was elderly when I got her, and never laid me a single egg, but I couldn't keep her with my layers--if she saw an egg, the switch went on in her tiny head and she was on it. I used her to mother meat chicks--it made her (and them) very happy.

If you are putting eggs under a broody hen does it matter if you do it during the day, or should you do it at night?

Have to do it at night or the hen might kill them mistaking them for rodents. If she sits all night on them she gets used to their voices and accepts them as hers.

Yep, chicks should be placed at night, but with eggs it doesn't matter. A broody hen will tuck eggs in day or night, I prefer day if I'm giving a hen some eggs, because I like to place them in front of her and let her roll them in so I can see better how many she can cover adequately. Some hens will only cover 5 or 6, but some will handily cover a dozen. If any are peeking out from under her, it's too many.

One or two of my Frey's Dual Purpose (slow growing meat chickens) regularly sit on a golf ball in a nesting box, keeping it warm.... wishful thinking at its finest! But they are not broody. The four of them will be going into the freezer soon, labelled "stewing hen".

mine are dropping like flies....i have at last count 2 turkeys and 7 chickens all sitting on .....wait for it......NUTHIN! and another 2 chickens sitting on golf balls...go figure. wow, shame on me for getting chickens thinking i may actually get eggs for oh, a breakfast or baking.....ha ha

yeah, just push the eggs in any time.
chicks are definitely an after dark thing and in the dark....i've still had some moms try to kill chicks given at night....so always supervise closely!!!

This year I've found the worst for broodies.

I had one Ameraucana hen go broody for about 2 months, but there was no rooster with them, and I do not want to use her for breeding. She just came out of it, and now I am thinking I should have given her someone else's eggs. She's in with 4 other hens and I didn't have anywhere else to put her. I have put a nest box back to see if she is still broody and have collected a few eggs.

I read somewhere that shortening the day length will get them out of being broody. I haven't tried it.