General advice about non-laying chicken that I want to give a clutch of eggs to hatch

[Hallelie]

I hope this is under the proper topic - it's a bit of a broad question

Background info:
- I live in the Southern hemisphere, so it is now summer here. Autumn starts in March, winter in June, Spring in September.
- The hens are an undetermined mix of breeds
- The chickens have free range of my yard, and we live in the suburbs, so there are virtually no predators around
- The chickens have continual access to layer feed

The chicken (Hiep):
I first got my two hens in March last year. My cousin has free range chickens, and agreed to give me two adult hens. After arriving, they were both laying regularly, and I would get ~4 eggs per hen per week. The one (KiepKiep) started a hard moult when winter started. The other one (Hiep) continued laying until mid to end of June, which is almost when winter ends here. Then she stopped. I thought she was busy with a soft moult, but she never restarted laying again. KiepKiep did and is still going strong.
In between this I got another hen (Snert) from my cousin, but she died from ascites (I think) end of December, and never laid any eggs that I know of. She had lice, but I never saw lice on the other two.
Hiep has gone broody once or twice, and even after stopping laying, has still shown some nesting behaviours. I'm not sure how old she is, but not too old, possibly 2 years. She might have also raised a clutch before, we do not know. She was definitely raised by a mother hen. I think she is a good candidate for hatching a clutch. She looks otherwise healthy and nothing seems amiss from my (very amateur) inspections.

The questions:
- Would a chicken that has stopped laying still go broody and hatch a clutch?
- Do I need to treat her for lice before I give her eggs to hatch? (I can check them for lice again, but is is always a bit of a mission to catch them XD)
- Would it be useful to treat her for internal parasites before hatching more? Which parasites should I treat for or which medications work best?
- Do I need to give her access to a higher protein feed a few days before she goes broody?
- Any other advice?

 

[K0k0shka]

Yes, it is possible for a hen that isn't laying to go broody. Some people keep retired hens for the purpose of brooding, because they continue hatching and caring for chicks even after they've finished the laying stage of their lives. Depending on this hen's breed, she may already be at retirement age even if she's only 2-3 years old - some of the production breeds have a very intense, but very short, laying cycle where they will lay outrageous numbers of eggs for a couple of years, then wear themselves out and stop. They also don't live as long as other breeds.

It's a good idea to give your birds a check if you know one of them has had lice before.

You do not need to treat for parasites preemptively, only if you know they actually have parasites (you can give a poop sample to a vet to run a test to confirm).

Higher protein feed - at least 18%, ideally 20% - is a good idea in general for overall health, regardless of the life stage of the bird. A lot of the layer feeds out there are way too low in protein - 16% or even 15% - which is the bare minimum and not good in the long run.