How do you mark your non laying hens?

[floridachickhatcher]

Me and my mom are thinking of getting leg bands to mark the hens that have stopped laying cause my mom doesn't want to feed them and not have it produce and she sprayed their legs one time with paint but then it wears off too quickly and was wondering does anyone else use something to mark the hens other than a leg band?

 

[dgecko]

paint gun
frying pan good ole fried chicken
Another reason while some are not laying now is the HEAT you could try letting your chickens free roam for a month and see if they start laying again but if they are older hens it might be time to get new ones and do away with the older birds

 

[floridachickhatcher]

Quote:
no we had them before this HEAT i think the lady that sold them to us was lying about them laying and their age

 

[donrae]

zip ties work nice, they're cheap at most stores.

 

[floridachickhatcher]

Quote:
thought about that

 

[Miyashi]

It takes some time for them to get used to their new surroundings. It can take quite a while before they'll start laying again. (I don't know how long you've had them)
And maybe, just taking stabs here....they aren't very old at all and haven't even started laying yet!
I dunno....
But I for sure know nothing about marking them.
I can tell everyone in my yard apart....if I hear them I can tell who's talking without seeing them.
Ehe...
I don't know how many birdies you have though either...so I'm just saying what all I thought I should!

 

[Tala]

I know which egg each chicken lays, except for the white Leghorn twins. So I can tell which ones laid each day just by what eggs I get. This is an advantage of a mixed breed flock

If you don't want to get leg bands, use zip ties. Just trim the ends really short so they can't tighten them by biting them, and keep an eyeball on them to make sure. If they're not growing they shouldn't get over tight on their own, but stranger things have happened. One of my Leghorn girls has had a green zip tie on since she was a youngster to tell her apart from the other one. I expect one day the plastic may break down and it might just break off. hehehe