Moulting

Hello there,
I'm not an expert; however as I understand it a hen puts lots of energy into moulting and gets quite tired.  They will not usually lay while moulting.
You might want to check for little visitors e.g. lice or redmite.
Good luck and keep us posted 

I know hens get warmer when they are broody and they also pluck out the feathers from their chest and underneath to brood the eggs better.   Is she "growling" at you and fluffing her feathers out when you get too close?

If you have a dog crate you could put it up on bricks (for her to cool off underneath) and put her in it with food and drink for a day or two.  Make sure she is protected from the worst of the weather - e.g. out of direct sunlight and protected from wind and rain.  Some people have tried this successfully.  Good luck and keep us posted. 

A broody hen can starve herself to death and can certainly put  the other hens off laying.    You need to decide firstly if you want her to sit on and hatch out fertile eggs or not. 

If you want her to sit you will need a separate coop and you will have to decide what to do with the cockerels that hatch out.  It is usually just over half.

If you want her to stop being broody you will need to try some anti-broody measures.  If you type anti-broody measures into the search box in the top right-hand corner you should find several different things to try.

Good luck and keep us posted 

Oh yes, brrody hens are real grumps when you chuck them out of the nest box.  Always wandering around, with their feathers puffed out, chuntering away to themselves.

If she is still laying, then you might not need a cage.  Just keep her off the nest box, and it may be enough to break her after a few days.  This often happens with laying hybrids, becasue they have almost been deprogrammed for going broody, so they tend to break fairly easily.

Oh dear - you have overcome the broodiness and now you've come full circle back to your original question! 

She must be a tough old chook to still be laying all through her broodiness and now through her moulting.  And it will be putting a strain on her system so she will need a bit of extra TLC.

Both egg-laying and growing new feathers takes energy and nutrients (especially protein).  So make sure she has a good, balanced diet of mostly layers' pellets or another balanced type of food suitable for laying hens.

In addition, you can consider giving her a protein boost.  I use worms out of my worm farm, but other people suggest giving her something like tinned fish or pet food. 

BUT!  Look at the ingredients on the tin and the nutritional panel.  It's only a protein boost if the tinned food contains more protein than her regular food - usually 16% to 18%.  Some pet foods contain only 10% protein so you will actually reduce her protein if you give her that.  Also don't give her salty food - so definitely no fish in brine.