How do you know??

[sloanbychoice]

@bruceha2000
Do you have pix of your white rocks?

I’m just not fortunate enough, apparently, to be able to view them soon enough after laying.

 

[bruceha2000]

This is Angel, taken in Dec 2015 when she was 6 months old

She is rarely this white. White gets dirty! I don't have any current pictures of Daisy and Lily, they are now 8 months old.

You really just need to get lucky catching them in the act. For 2 months I thought Hera was laying the blue gray egg and Rhea the brighter green one .... until one of them was in the nest box where the green egg gets laid and I spotted Rhea out in the barn alley with the rest of the girls.

 

[sloanbychoice]

@bruceha2000
She’s beautiful!!
Does she have red earlobes?
I don’t know much about them, but I’m studying breeds. Especially, the differences in otherwise similar breeds.

 

[janiedoe]

I'm a semi-retired business owner so I have quite a bit more time to hang with my chickens than a lot of people do.
Chicken watching is my favorite hobby. I have 20 gorgeous girls and a big, beautiful rooster. I know almost everyone's egg by shape or color, but I do have a few that lay similar eggs that I can't identify unless I catch them in the act.
Also, my hens make so much noise when they lay that it isn't any problem knowing "who did it". Lol

 

[Mimi13]

Knowing who laid what was a huge obsession for me in the beginning. I guess I was a stalker around the coop for a while. But I just had to know. Now that I know what each girl’s egg looks like I don’t obsess over it. Like it was said earlier, you kind of have to be in the right place at the right time. But you can make a point to hang around the coop on one of your days off and just scope out what Chicken goes in, which nest they use and then what egg is deposited.

Every egg is different in some way, colored ones anyway. Shiny, matte, smooth, splotchy, bumpy, long, short, round, oval, etc. Some hens will leave more bloom (coating) on the egg and some will scratch the crap out of their eggs. I have three girls that scratch the eggs so bad, mostly with their beaks, that I can’t sell those particular ones. Well, I could as there is nothing wrong with the egg, but they just feel so rough, so I don’t.

I also keep a daily count of what eggs have been laid. I mark each day on my BYC calendar and then transfer the data to my excel spreadsheet. I just track the number of each Brown/Blue/White/Green. So my calendar has this weird gibberish on each day like 14/6/1/5. Yep, I’ve only got one line white egg layer. I’ve done this for almost four years now.

 

[LikeTurkeys]

Well, I only have 3 hens right now, so I can tell everyone's eggs apart. The blue/green ones come from my EE the long, rich brown ones come from one of my BO's, and the light brown ones come from my other BO. When I had 7 laying hens, most laid brown eggs and I couldn't tell those apart unless I saw them in the nest box. When I had my RIR around, her eggs were always large and round, so hers were easy to tell. So shape, color, and size all play a part. As well as knowing your hens well.

 

[Mimi13]

Also, my hens make so much noise when they lay that it isn't any problem knowing "who did it". Lol

Now if that ain’t the truth!

 

[sloanbychoice]

Maybe I just have to many of each breed or type.
I have five EEs, and I know that, between them, I have one blue, three green, and one pinkish.
I have two W leghorns, and I know theirs apart for sure. Both white, one huge.
The rest if the flock is 3 BR, 2 Welsummers, and production reds. Between all of those, I just know all the “browns” came from them.
There are so many various shades between them though. I’d love to know which is which.
I do believe my Welsummers are the ones with very dark speckling on them.

 

[Shadrach]

Observation basically. Which hen lays where is the starting point for me. Who is laying and when. Then comes egg shade and size.

 

[Duckfarmer1]

You can also do a lipstick test. At night you take a really bright shade of lipstick...something cheap. Put it on the chicken’s vent. Over the next few days you will see eggs marked with red, fuchsia, hot pink, etc. Then it can help you identify that your bird is laying..and what the eggs look like. Some of my birds lay a distinct looking egg...large with tiny specks. One lays with a slight wave to it. One lays super dark brown. Then there are my EE. I have 37 hens. This has helped me identify which pullets came into lay, and which older birds are still laying. Older farmers do it in the fall to decide who to cull. They mark the bird, watch for eggs. Put zip tie on the leg if they lay. Watch for eggs again. If they are not still laying...they go. My flock is young and we have not done this method but perhaps when it becomes time, I might.