Anyone have any questions about “Is my chicken laying an egg”? Because I know how to tell

[aart]

It’s one of the most commonly used methos.

Commonly mentioned , rarely applied.

 

[EmmaRainboe]

Commonly mentioned , rarely applied.

Really? I know many people around here who have done it. Interesting.

 

[MGG]

Might be the same video as in this article:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/who-is-laying-and-who-is-not-butt-check.73309/


You are the first I've seen that has actually done this.
When do you apply the dye, at night or early morning?
Do you use liquid food dye or gel?
Do you just dab the surface or push it up inside?

I can answer any food dye questions, I've done it multiple times.

 

[aart]

Really? I know many people around here who have done it. Interesting.

I've heard people talking about doing it.

 

[aart]

I can answer any food dye questions, I've done it multiple times.

Great....waiting.

 

[EmmaRainboe]

I've heard people talking about doing it.

Yep, very commonly talked about. Many backyard breeders around here. They do it so they can only hatch eggs from certain hens. Sp they can hatch sex Iinks and stuff.

 

[icy_flames]

If you want to know how who lays what egg, you take food coloring dye, and you put a few drips directly in there vent, yup, there vent. Then you wait and see if there are any streaks on the eggs of the color you are doing. If you are doing two chickens, color them un-similar colors, like red and orange are too close, so maybe orange and purple?

I've seen this on a couple chicken sites and thought about giving it a whirl. It's very hard to tell who laid what on a daily basis between my Australorp, Buff Orpington, and Mottled Java. All their eggs look exactly the same in size and color. Great pics too! Thanks for including those!

 

[MGG]

Great....waiting.

What questions still need to be answered?

 

[MGG]

I found them, nevermind! Just give me a few.

 

[MGG]

When do you apply the dye, at night or early morning?
Do you use liquid food dye or gel?
Do you just dab the surface or push it up inside?

Nighttime is when I do it. My birds lay really early so I like to just do it in the evening.
Gel is what I use. I haven't seen one work better than the other.
I get the dye on my finger and smear it around so my finger is covered. (Pointer fingers work best for this job)
Then I stand the bird on a table, (if she's flighty you can just hold her, but I haven't had to do that yet)
and then smear it all around inside. If you do it in the outside there's more chance for pecking, and it dyes the feathers. If you put it inside the feathers stay mostly clean.

Do you wipe it front to back, back to front, or roundy roundy?

Roundy roundy.

How long does the dye last between applications? Sometimes you can't really tell when the chicken is actually going to lay, so if they poop a few times, doesn't that kind of take the dye with it?

It lasts well for the next three or so eggs. The blue dye lasted a bit more than a week though!
It takes a bit, but the majority remains inside. The poops will be color tinted some though so don't freak out. I did.
It could be used in identifying poops too, I suppose.
You can see some of the dye on these two eggs. Not a lot, just a nice little streaking.
Two days after applying the dye.

One day after applying dye. Blue works really well.