egg laying while mothering a chick

[sueandthe6]

I left two of my girls go broody. They each sat on a nest but I wasn't diligent about marking or pulling eggs so the other girls kept laying too. Finally after weeks of barely any eggs I marked some and got my act together. They eventually hatched out one chick (3 others hatched in the incubator but they are doing their own thing). Anyway- so this little thing has two doting mommas who keep it well protected and cared for. Do they go so preoccupied with the baby that they don't lay? I have 8 girls and was only getting maybe 5 or 6 eggs a day- now I am down to two. I know my two leghorns are laying outside the coop/nest boxes but should still be getting at least 3 a day. I wanted to do the broody momma thing for the experience but wont again if it means months of no or greatly reduced eggs. If they do tend to stop laying while supervising a baby (or babies) when do they start back up again? ugggg love this little peep chirping around the run with everyone but what a mucked up situation it seems to bring on all around.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Before a hen even starts to lay eggs she builds up excess fat. A lot of this excess fat is in a fat pad in the pelvic region but extra fat is stored all over. This is why she does not need to eat a lot when she is on the nest as a broody, she mainly lives off that excess fat. A hen can lose quite a bit of weight while broody but that’s no big deal, it’s why the fat was stored to start with.

After a hen brings her chicks off the nest she starts eating a lot more, but she is still using a lot of energy just mothering her chicks. A broody hen just doesn’t sit still that long. She will not start to lay again until she builds that fat back up to a certain level.

I had a hen start to lay just 2-1/2 weeks after she brought her chicks off the nest but that is extremely rare. That hen weaned her chicks at three weeks. I’ve had hens go through a full molt while they were raising their chicks even in late summer. It took her a while to start laying after she weaned her chicks because she had to finish the molt, but she started laying about the same time the others went through their fall molt. She laid a nice egg all fall and winter.

What is more normal is that a hen starts to lay a few weeks after she weans her chicks. Most of my broodies wean their chicks between 4 to 9 weeks of age and start laying a couple of weeks later, but it can really vary.