Need to separate the eggs from one hen - any ideas on identifying?

[alicscott]

Hello,
One of my girls (Calamity) is being treated for sour crop and the vet has just informed me that we now can’t eat any eggs that she lays - ever! Calamity has five sisters - all rescued hens and all different ages - and they all live in a large coop and run at our allotment, so I don’t see who is laying. I have a rough idea, but can’t be completely sure. We don’t want to have to throw away all the eggs we get from now on, but don’t really have space for another run to separate Calamity (and wouldn’t want to keep her on her own anyway).
Does anyone have any bright ideas for how I can identify any eggs Calamity lays?

Thanks in advance!
Alison

 

[EggSighted4Life]

One of my girls (Calamity) is being treated for sour crop and the vet has just informed me that we now can’t eat any eggs that she lays - ever

What country are you in and what drug is being used?

There are so many ways to treat sour crop that won't effect a hen permanantly.. that just seems like terrible advice from the vet! How old is your gal? Do you sell or share your eggs with other families?

Lipstick on the vent.. reapplied regularly during the night.. would stain her egg as it's laid.. but.. my prior statements are summed up here.. in don't be fear mongered!

Hope your gal recovers quickly!

 

[alicscott]

What country are you in and what drug is being used?

There are so many ways to treat sour crop that won't effect a hen permanantly.. that just seems like terrible advice from the vet! How old is your gal? Do you sell or share your eggs with other families?

Lipstick on the vent.. reapplied regularly during the night.. would stain her egg as it's laid.. but.. my prior statements are summed up here.. in don't be fear mongered!

Hope your gal recovers quickly!

Thanks! I’m in the UK and we do share the eggs with family and friends.
I’m not exactly sure what drugs she’s been given - I’ll know more tomorrow when I collect her from the vet’s. If I’ve understood correctly, it’s partly connected with the licensing - the treatments are being used off-label here, so studies haven’t been done in farm animals.
Calamity is doing much better today - it’s been touch and go for her, so I’m very grateful the vet’s treatment has saved her and I can bring her home tomorrow.
Thanks for the lipstick tip - I’ll try that approach!

 

[aart]

I’m not exactly sure what drugs she’s been given - I’ll know more tomorrow when I collect her from the vet’s.

Yes, would be good to know.
Might want to band her, and isolate her, to help in figuring out what her eggs looks like.

I’m in the UK

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[NatJ]

don’t really have space for another run to separate Calamity (and wouldn’t want to keep her on her own anyway).

Separating her for a few days might let you become more familiar with what shape & color her eggs are. That might be enough to let you recognize them later.

Beyond that, everything I can think of has some obvious disadvantages.

If you did have room for another run, you could consider getting her one or two companions that lay obviously different eggs (like green, blue, or white, if she lays brown.) Then it would be obvious which eggs from that pen were hers, but she would not have to live alone. But if you don't have room for another run, that clearly will not work.

Some people have talked about putting food coloring or lipstick on a hen's vent at night, to mark the egg she lays the next day. You could test that idea with her in a separate pen for a few days, so you can make sure her eggs really do get marked. Having to re-mark every night would be an obvious disadvantage of this idea.

You could put her in a separate cage or pen each day, then let her out after she lays her egg. Or let her out when all the others have laid, because then you know that any remaining egg must be hers. That avoids penning her ALL the time, but takes a lot of your time each day.

I don’t see who is laying. I have a rough idea, but can’t be completely sure. We don’t want to have to throw away all the eggs we get from now on

If you can recognize half the eggs as not-hers, you could comfortably eat them, which would at least help. That might be as good as you can get in this case. If you get any more hens while she is alive, you could make an effort to get ones that lay visibly different eggs. That way you could at least recognize the new ones.

the vet has just informed me that we now can’t eat any eggs that she lays - ever!

I would definitely ask about what medicines were used and do some research on that. You might decide that the vet is being overly-conservative, and that some period of time is long enough. You could certainly re-check the matter every now and then, in case new research or new guidelines say something different. If you sell eggs, you might have to follow specific rules that don't apply to eggs for personal use.

I know that long-term contraceptives are sometimes used for hens with laying issues. I wonder if that would be helpful in the case of this hen, just to avoid the issues of recognizing her eggs?

And at risk of sounding hard-hearted, you might consider how important it is to you to continue keeping this hen as a pet, and what you are willing to do to make that happen. Since you have already taken the hen to the vet, and are currently asking for advice about identifying eggs, I gather that you are willing to do quite a bit to continue keeping her. I'm not saying you need to change anything, just suggesting that you make sure your actions line up with your own priorities.

 

[alicscott]

Separating her for a few days might let you become more familiar with what shape & color her eggs are. That might be enough to let you recognize them later.

Beyond that, everything I can think of has some obvious disadvantages.

If you did have room for another run, you could consider getting her one or two companions that lay obviously different eggs (like green, blue, or white, if she lays brown.) Then it would be obvious which eggs from that pen were hers, but she would not have to live alone. But if you don't have room for another run, that clearly will not work.

Some people have talked about putting food coloring or lipstick on a hen's vent at night, to mark the egg she lays the next day. You could test that idea with her in a separate pen for a few days, so you can make sure her eggs really do get marked. Having to re-mark every night would be an obvious disadvantage of this idea.

You could put her in a separate cage or pen each day, then let her out after she lays her egg. Or let her out when all the others have laid, because then you know that any remaining egg must be hers. That avoids penning her ALL the time, but takes a lot of your time each day.



If you can recognize half the eggs as not-hers, you could comfortably eat them, which would at least help. That might be as good as you can get in this case. If you get any more hens while she is alive, you could make an effort to get ones that lay visibly different eggs. That way you could at least recognize the new ones.



I would definitely ask about what medicines were used and do some research on that. You might decide that the vet is being overly-conservative, and that some period of time is long enough. You could certainly re-check the matter every now and then, in case new research or new guidelines say something different. If you sell eggs, you might have to follow specific rules that don't apply to eggs for personal use.

I know that long-term contraceptives are sometimes used for hens with laying issues. I wonder if that would be helpful in the case of this hen, just to avoid the issues of recognizing her eggs?

And at risk of sounding hard-hearted, you might consider how important it is to you to continue keeping this hen as a pet, and what you are willing to do to make that happen. Since you have already taken the hen to the vet, and are currently asking for advice about identifying eggs, I gather that you are willing to do quite a bit to continue keeping her. I'm not saying you need to change anything, just suggesting that you make sure your actions line up with your own priorities.

Thanks so much NatJ for the thoughts!

Calamity is home now - thank goodness - but is not better yet. She has several meds to help her recover, but the troublesome one is the antibiotic. Speaking with the vet yesterday, farm animals are not, by law (in Europe), allowed to be given this antibiotic if it might end up in the food chain, and apparently there is a risk of this drug being absorbed into her eggs. As I understand, the risk then is that antibiotic resistance could develop in people who consume the eggs.
As she’s still not well she won’t be laying any time soon, we have some time to figure out a way of identifying Calamity’s eggs…

The eggs are an enjoyable bonus of rescuing the hens, so if it comes to it, I will keep her and discard all the eggs/use them in another way outside of the human food chain.

Thanks again!

 

[NatJ]

Calamity is home now - thank goodness - but is not better yet. She has several meds to help her recover, but the troublesome one is the antibiotic. Speaking with the vet yesterday, farm animals are not, by law (in Europe), allowed to be given this antibiotic if it might end up in the food chain, and apparently there is a risk of this drug being absorbed into her eggs. As I understand, the risk then is that antibiotic resistance could develop in people who consume the eggs.

In that case, I would probably look up information on the antibiotic in question, and how much is known about how long it stays in the body. In the first few days, it certainly would make sense to discard any eggs she lays or feed them back specifically to her (not to the other hens, because then they would have some amount of the antibiotic too.)

But there is probably some point in the future when the amount of antibiotic in her system is low enough that it doesn't really matter, for eggs for personal consumption. I do not know whether that time would be measured in weeks, months, or years. It is probably long enough that commercial layers would be culled, rather than treating them and keeping them for that long without using their eggs, but that would not really be the same as your case.