Middle of a serious molt and laying?

[Gooter]

I'm wondering how weird this is...I've not been 'with chickens' long enough to have seen everything. I have 3 SLWs. My eldest hen, who is about 18 months old or so, had been laying about 4-5 eggs/week until about 6 weeks or so ago. (My other 2 pullets had been laying before I got them but stopped when I got them...and none of my hens have been laying since about that 6 week-ago time.)

ANYway... About a week or so ago my eldest hen went into a molt. She lost at least half her feathers and has a bazillion new ones coming in very nicely. But yesterday she started acting like she wanted to lay, and singing her song and going in and out of the nest box. No egg. But this morning when I went out to let everyone out for the day, there was a shell-less egg (not her style...but...) in the next box and she had yolk all over her legs, and goo smeared on her what's left of her fluffy butt feathers.

How common is it for a hen to lay during a molt? Isn't this unusual?

I feed laying pellets, supplement with a conditioner occasionally, and give kitten food for extra protein. They have access to oyster shell calcium at all times. They also get greens.

Just curious if anyone's seen laying during molting, or maybe it's not that strange?

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Sounds like a good bird to me. Gets molting done fast and then back to work.

 

[Happy Chooks]

My light brahma went through a mini molt. Lost some of her feathers and grew them back in all while still laying an egg every other day. They finished growing in (you can tell he ones that are new cuz they are white as opposed to reddish brown dirt color) and now she's quit laying. She still has a buzzard head, so maybe she's going to go into phase 2 molt.