Broody hen & nonbroody hen together

[In His Service]

I have Salmon faverolles, 2 hens and a rooster. One hen went broody, and is setting on 7 eggs. The other quit laying. Is this normal? They are 1 year old, give or take. The rooster and non broody hen don't ever seem to bother the broody one, in fact, when they are roosting, they turn toward her and coo softly, almost sounds like singing lullabyes, lol. When Bertha (broody hen) gets up each day to eat, drink, jog around the run, etc, Bif and Martha seem to act like nothing is out of the ordinary...they don't show any unusual attention to Bertha or the eggs. Just wondering why the non broody one stopped laying. We have two nesting boxes and in the past they have used each roughly equally.

Also, I have an igloo-type doghouse I was considering using to house Bertha and the chicks once they hatch. It will fit inside the run, should I try to move them in now? It would mean taking the eggs out of the nesting box and using a new box, as the one she is in now won't fit in the doghouse.

We just got started with chickens a few months ago, this is our first time with a broody hen and we are very excited to see the chicks...should be around the 18th of this month.

 

[Bantimna]

The other quit laying. Is this normal?

I'm not sure if it's normal, but it could be that Martha is also trying to go broody, or something

It will fit inside the run, should I try to move them in now?

You could try, is there some way you could make the igloo dog house bigger? I'm not so sure about removing them eggs.
But it's worth a try.​

 

[In His Service]

OK, now here's what's happening. I guess the kids and DH were mistaken when they thought they had counted wrong...2 days after my first post there were 9 eggs in the nest with broody Bertha. Apparently Martha was getting into the nest when Bertha got up to do her business. Which by the way is sight in itself. She leaves the nest, runs to the water, gulps it down, makes a majorly large poop, then runs to the food, then just runs about in general, stopping every so often to eat and drink, then returns to the nest. It's like here whole day is on fast forward. Today, however, Bertha was apparently ready to get back on the nest before Martha was finished with it. . . so she climbed in with her. Bertha craned her neck over Martha making sure the eggs were tucked in under her. We were trying to figure out how to get Martha out, and thought maybe if we put plastic eggs in the other nesting box, she would go in there ... maybe she wanted to go broody too. Problem was Bertha got out, looked at plastic eggs, seemed to be a bit confused or concerned and hopped in to sit on them. Finally, Martha decided to leave having laid her egg. We had previously marked the eggs Bertha was sitting on so we removed the new egg, and I picked up broody mama and put her in with the real eggs and now she is fat dumb and happy again. Bertha is back on the eggs and Martha and Biff are on the roost, where they coo softly to her just before dark.
BTW, we have chairs set up outside the runs, just to sit and watch...chicken shenanigans. I took a pic of the 2 in the nesting box, but don't know how to put it on here.