Will a formally broody hen start laying again in winter?

[humblehillsfarm]

I have some pullets who have all started laying in the last two weeks. My older hens are all molting now except for my broody girl. She now has 9 week old chicks and is starting to distance themselves from them. She also raised chicks this spring, and when they were around 9-10 weeks old she started laying again. She is an Americauna but her eggs are aqua-ish and the same color as my EE eggs. My EE also was injured in a bear attack when mama hen was 2 weeks into incubation and the EE stopped laying. Twice in the last three days I've found an aqua egg, much larger than the tiny pullet eggs, in the nest box. Days are about 10-11 hours long here. I didn't think either one of them would start laying again. Just curious if this has happened to anyone before?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I had a hen that molted while raising chicks in late summer. She started laying after she finished in October, about the time the other older hens started their molt and she laid all winter.

No matter what traditional wisdom tells you that hens will or will not do, there are always going to be exceptions. We can tell you what we think will most likely happen and may even be right most of the time but

’Tis impossible to be sure of any thing but Death and Taxes

quoted from The Cobbler of Preston by Christopher Bullock (1716)

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I had a hen that molted while raising chicks in late summer. She started laying after she finished in October, about the time the other older hens started their molt and she laid all winter.

No matter what traditional wisdom tells you that hens will or will not do, there are always going to be exceptions. We can tell you what we think will most likely happen and may even be right most of the time but

’Tis impossible to be sure of any thing but Death and Taxes

quoted from The Cobbler of Preston by Christopher Bullock (1716)

That is essentially what happened here, except plausibly it could be one of two birds. I suspect the broody mom.