I'm sure this is good information, but what if your hens are skittish and won't let you near? We let our broody hens hatch the chicks and they are "wild" and won't be handled.
I watch the color of the combs. Also as they age they have produced less and less eggs. One day I was cleaning the greenhouse and found a rat nest with 6 eggs in it. The rats SOMEHOW carried the eggs across the yard and into a rats nest below the pallet of straw. I would love to know if they rolled them or carried those eggs across the yard, through a drain pipe and into the greenhouse..
Thank you for writing this up and providing diagrams! I have 2 Barred Rock pullets I can barely tell apart, but only one barred rock egg has been getting laid. I can never seem to catch the one who is laying, so this is very helpful. I'll check them this evening to see which one it is!
Excellent info. I'm bookmarking this for the next time someone says they don't know who is or isn't laying. Me personally, I have silkies so don't care who isn't laying, just grateful for who is!
Thank you
Everything explained very well makes it easy to follow the directions and understand what you’re looking for or not looking for . Very much appreciated.
Excellent article! For years I've checked the pelvic points on my hen to determine if they were laying or how close to laying they were. There was some other methods of telling in this article that I found quite interesting. This article was an overall good read and informational.