[magicfairy]

One of our orpington hens has been acting strange over the last 2 days.  She has been sitting in the nest box all day, all fluffed up, but on NO eggs.

I assumed she was broody and I keep taking her out, but she goes straight back in and I don't have all day to go through this routine with her!

Last night I shut off the nest boxes and she nested down on the floor of the coop in between perches.

Today I shut her out of the run and into the garden, so she couldn't get to the nest boxes, she just made a little groove in front of the gate into the run and nested down.

Now all this makes me think she is broody, but I have noticed that she has lost a lot of feathers from her breast and behind and her breast is also red and hot to the touch. 
When you go to her when she is nested she puffs up her neck feathers, but is ok at being picked up, just not when she realises you are not going to put her back in the same spot.

Also I noticed that one of the others has really got it in for her, not letting her get to the food, pecking at her neck. 

Is this broodiness?  Do the others pick on you if you are broody?  She was kind of always on the same level in the pecking order as this other one (they are the middle ones of 4)

She is eating and drinking, when she can!

[BillJames]

Classic symptoms, She is most def on the broody case.

[Jomtie]

We isolate ours in an anti broody coop during the day so she can't get into the nestbox and she can't comfortably nest on the mesh base. We feel cruel....and she obviously hates it, but she's a blooming nuisance clogging up the 'preferred' nestbox all day and stopping the others going in to lay (apart from the little blacktail who ignores her growling and just goes in on top of her to lay!). My husband built it at the weekend, so we're hoping  it does the trick!  

Picture of coop here
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=93602.15
if you want to see how it's made. The mesh base means that she can't nest and the airflow keeps her temperature down. She does hate being in there though so I hope she gets this out of her system soon.

[angelavdavis]

I experienced this a few years ago, with an ex-battery hen (much to my surprise as the instinct is supposed to be bred out of them!)

I found a thread online http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/how-to-make-a-broody-coop-for-your-chickens-and-bantams-in-under-an-hour-289, although I didn't use their diy version because I already had a pet cage which fitted the bill that I could simply put her in, the principle worked and she stopped her broodiness in a couple of days (this was after over 2 weeks of her like it and me at the end of my tether).

[JaK]

Broody for sure.
 One of my Brahma hens is broody for the first time too, will have to try and break the broodyness.