Broody

Sometimes when you have hens, especially certain kinds, they can get 'broody'. This means that they would prefer to sit and incubate the eggs (or golf balls) in the nest instead of doing everyday scratching and foraging and running around... well... I think I have a broody hen. She's my cream colored Serama named Cutie Pie. I've not heard that Seramas are a particularly 'Broody' type of chicken, but Cutie Pie seems to be. She was also my first chica to start laying eggs. She first started acting broody several days ago, but once I removed the eggs that were laid from the nest, she would get up and go do normal things. I have been keeping a golf ball in each nest (to give the newly laying girls a hint of where to put their eggs), and now she's taken to sitting on the ball, even after I remove the eggs... This would be a great thing if I had fertile eggs and wanted to raise some chicks, but it's not such a great thing when we're not in that boat. I've heard that some hens will be so stubborn they will nearly starve themselves while sitting on the eggs, waiting for them to hatch. I certainly don't want that to happen! I guess I'm going to have to take the golf balls out of the nests now, so she'll go about her days again.

She won't even get out so other chicas can lay their eggs... she just gets squished... This is my Barred Plymouth Rock, Miss Betty, about to lay an egg, which Cutie Pie then pushed underneath herself, and sat on until I came and took it.
She has claimed this nest as her own... I'm going to remove the golf balls tomorrow...