I have three hens. They were all laying everyday with the occasional skipped day. One month ago my Easter Egger started going broody. I kicked her out of the hen house and within two days she was over being broody. She rejoined the other hens and was not fixated on the nest box. I thought all was good, but here we are one month later and she is still not laying. The other two are still going at their normal pace. Everyone has the same environment, food, water, light, etc. Is this normal?
It takes about a month for the brooding hormones to fully clear the system and for production to resume. This time of year, molting and shorter days also play a part in production.
It depends on how long they were broody and also on time of year. If a broody is stopped within the first week, she should come into lay within a few weeks. If forced to stop after just one or two days it is possible for her to start laying again in a few days. If she has been broody for 2-3 weeks or more, it is true her body needs to go through a hormonal cycle first before laying again, because broodiness is brought on by hormones with some stimulation present(normally, it is several eggs in the nest as the stimulus trigger), not because they simply decided to. Broodies broken in or close to the fall time may start to enter molt, this will put off their laying for several weeks/couple months. Or they may simply be slower to come back into production due to the reduced daylight hours- broodies broken in the spring usually start laying much sooner than in the fall. Similar thing can be seen in broody hens allowed to hatch chicks- hens can be quick to wean them and start laying again pretty fast in the spring, while the same hen in the fall probably will "keep" her chicks for several months into the spring.
Kev has provided some very good information about broody behavior. I might sum it up by pointing out it's fall, and that's a bad time to expect any layer to be putting out, no matter what the individual situation - pullets on the verge of laying, broodys coming off hormones, hens completing molt. Just consider yourself SOL on eggs until after winter solstice and the days start adding daylight again. Or you could try to goose the chances of eggs by supplementing light and see what happens.
How old is bird? Are you in the northern hemisphere? Great points made above. Also, EE's can be notoriously inconsistent layers.
