For the last week or so one of the hens has become broody and is constantly sitting on a nest. I have read a few things about ways you can stop them being broody one of which is to place a bucket or cardbaord box over them for 24 hours. Although I am sure this would not harm the chicken I decided it was not an approach I would like to take.
To try and encourage then hen to snap out of its broody frame of mind I have split the nesting boxes into 3 sperate comparments rather than on large box. This was more for the other hens to esure the broody hen did not put them off. I remove the broody hen every day from the nesting box and try to keep her out as long as posible but as soon as she gets the chance to go back she does. Not sure if this approach will work we will just have to wait and see. If anyone knows a better way of dealing with this please let me know.
My neighbor told me you need to dip the hens backside quickly into a bucket of cold water to stop them from being broody. Either that or put them in a cage and hang the cage from a tree overnight. Sounds strange, but apparently it works.
From what I read it does seem to have a lot to do with temperature so I guess that makes sense.