How do you know which chickens are laying?????

[ctcasper]

How are all of you identifying which chicken is laying and what eggs each chicken lays. I have all brown egg layers, 4 buffs, 1 red sex link, 1 barred rock, and I have gotten three eggs. The first two came every other day and were about the same color, the third came the day after the second and was just a tinge darker. I can't tell if they are from the same chicken, or even which chicken any of them came from. Please give me any tips that you know.

 

[Mahonri]

Put a chair in the coop some Saturday and sit and watch?

 

[HorseFeathers]

A laying hen will have wide-spaced pubic bones, very red comb & wattles, and a large, moist vent. HOWEVER: a pullet about to lay mey have these qualities too, so unless you catch them at it it's hard to tell.

That being said, my guess is (having had all those breeds) that the light ones are from the buffs and the dark from the rock.

 

[keljonma]

Mahonri Put a chair in the coop some Saturday and sit and watch?

I agree this is THE BEST way. And take your camera, so you can get some shots of the hen and her egg color.


Thjs might help too....
The 4 ways to tell if a hen is a layer or a non-layer.

Layer characteristics listed first
1) Their wattles and combs will be enlarged, bright red and waxy in appearance vs. small, pale and scaly.
2) The vent will be large and moist vs. dry and puckered.
3) The pubic or pin bones will wide apart to permit the laying of the egg, roughly 3 fingers wide vs. close together, 1 or two fingers wide.
4) The abdomen will be soft and pliable vs. hard and shallow.​

 

[ctcasper]

I am thinking that my red sex link is one of the ones laying because she seems to be spending the most time going in and out of the box, I have one buff that has always been a lot more mature than the rest, almost to the point where I questioned her sex a couple times, and her comb is almost as big as my buff roo Munchkin's and bright red. I bet she is the other layer. Anyone know what color, light or dark brown, the red sex links lay?

 

[Mahonri]

3) The pubic or pin bones will wide apart to permit the laying of the egg, roughly 3 fingers wide vs. close together, 1 or two fingers wide

Time for me to start feeling inside hens hind ends I guess.... but not until I get my first egg...

We are thinking it is too hot.

Our red sex link is 22 weeks old. The two EEs are 21 weeks old and the rest are 19 weeks old on Friday.

My 13 year old has put golf balls in the nests, he checks them before school, immediately after school and then before bed. He's now praying for it to cool down.

WE want some EGGS!!1​

 

[keljonma]

Well at our house we went by the redness of the comb and wattles and the squatting and our ladies running back and forth to the nest boxes.

Honestly, I don't want to be the ladies' gyn if I don't have to be.....

 

[Jolyn]

Quote:
Oh my gosh that large moist vent just cracked me up for some reason!!!!

I think i'll pass on checking for that sign.

 

[Jolyn]

I had no idea that they would do that squat thing when you reach down to touch them but my RIR that is laying does it all the time now.

I have three more hens laying...found four eggs this morning. I need to go out and try touching them and see who squats. That really works.

 

[debilorrah]

See, I have no idea who is laying our eggs either. With the breeds we have, that we know of, there are no white egg layers. So that means one of my mystery breeds is laying white eggs. Actually two. If anyone can get a chicken to lay an egg in front of them, I WANT VIDEO.