Are they broddy?

[tiffu22]

I have been getting less eggs then last year and was wondering if my hens could be broddy? We take the eggs out daily but my hubby says there are the same hens on the eggs every day. But when I go out at night there are no hens in the boxes. Could they be broddy still even though we take the eggs away? We also have some missing the back feathers, no rosster so I'm thinking they are molting as well. We did worm and debug them so that should not be the problem.

 

[Judy]

They can be broody even though you remove all the eggs, but if they are sleeping on the roost, they aren't broody. A broody will generally stay on the nest 24/7 except for one brief outing a day. Moltng starts at the head and shoulders, and works its way down, but there are heavy molts and light molts, and it can be tricky to even see that one is going through a light molt.. Do you see any pin feathers coming in? Did you have a rooster after the last molt? It can take many months for back feathers to regrow. Another possibility is feather picking, usually felt to be caused either by too little protein or too little space / boredom.

Fewer eggs could be some sort of stress or just increased age.