I take tons of pictures of my chickens, and as I was going back through them, it struck me just how much their combs and wattles change (in both color and SIZE!!!) when laying vs. not laying. I know this is usually listed as one of the ways to check if a hen/pullet is laying or not, but that might be hard to visualize, so I decided to collect some pictures and post them here side by side as a visual reference. And also because it’s fun 
An interesting thing I noticed is that the changes seem to vary a lot by breed. I have two breeds - English Orpingtons (of assorted colors) and Double Silver Laced Barnevelders. The Orps show the classic changes, which are very pronounced. Small and pale before point of lay and when molting, big and bright red when laying. The Barnevelders, on the other hand... Show very very subtle changes! There's barely any change in size, and the redness is only slightly more subdued now that they are molting. And the redness was always there before they started laying - bright red ever since they were young pullets. Their combs and wattles were just always bright red, until their first adult molt, so it was impossible to tell if they were close to POL by looks alone (and they were late to start, too - at 9 months old!)
So here are the pictures (laying first, then molting):
Orpingtons (check out the size difference!!!):
This one's comb was so big and full when she was laying, that it would flop to one side under its weight, but is small and completely upright when she's not laying:
And Barnevelders (just showing one of them, as they look very similar):
Check out a comparison between an Orpington and a Barnevelder at the same age, 4 months - that's 3 months before the Orpington started laying, and 5 (!!!) months before the Barnevelder started laying!
An interesting thing I noticed is that the changes seem to vary a lot by breed. I have two breeds - English Orpingtons (of assorted colors) and Double Silver Laced Barnevelders. The Orps show the classic changes, which are very pronounced. Small and pale before point of lay and when molting, big and bright red when laying. The Barnevelders, on the other hand... Show very very subtle changes! There's barely any change in size, and the redness is only slightly more subdued now that they are molting. And the redness was always there before they started laying - bright red ever since they were young pullets. Their combs and wattles were just always bright red, until their first adult molt, so it was impossible to tell if they were close to POL by looks alone (and they were late to start, too - at 9 months old!)
So here are the pictures (laying first, then molting):
Orpingtons (check out the size difference!!!):
This one's comb was so big and full when she was laying, that it would flop to one side under its weight, but is small and completely upright when she's not laying:
And Barnevelders (just showing one of them, as they look very similar):
Check out a comparison between an Orpington and a Barnevelder at the same age, 4 months - that's 3 months before the Orpington started laying, and 5 (!!!) months before the Barnevelder started laying!
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