how do you tell wich hen is laying

[jadude]

is there a way to tell if a hen is laying or not

 

[jadude]

does it have to do wih the comb

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

Well what I plan on doing is color the top of their vents with food coloring and look at the eggs. LOL I heard that works well. You can make several different colors and just make sure you write down which hen is which color. Mine are 15 weeks so in a few weeks when I see signs of the first egg I will do that. Just take a Q tip and rub it on. If you do this let me know how it works.

 

[PotterWatch]

I only have six birds so it isn't too hard for me. I know the only one laying eggs right now is one of my barred rocks because her comb and wattles grew larger and red, she started squatting when we reached out to pet her, and we see her hanging about in the nest box in the mornings.

 

[jadude]

how old is she

 

[havi]

Well I only have 6 chickens so it was easier for me to do. When they all started laying I went out one morning and started doing things around the coop. Working in the garden, fixing little things here and there on the coop and waited for my girls to start laying. When I noticed one go in the coop I would peep through the vent on the coop(my coop is only 4ft tall) and waited.. Then when she got up I went and picked up the egg and noted which one layed it. Thankfully mine started laying around 10:30 and the last one was layed around 1pm. This isnt always the case, but when those first couple of times I waited and watched that is how it unfolded.


Rose(RIR) lays 1st
Lola(BO) lays 2nd
Tawonda(RIR) lays 3rd
Thelma(EE) lays 4th
Nemo(BO) lays 5th
and the last one is
Louise(EE) lays 6th


Now this may be harder for someone who doesnt have the time to stay around the coop all day. Or if you have 30 chickens.

 

[gritsar]

If you want to look, the vent on a laying hen is pink and moist. After laying for awhile they will lose the feathers around their vent. I don't look. I know which hens are laying by their looks and behavior. The girls with the super red wattles and combs are also the girls that have an endless fascination with the nesting boxes. They also willingly submit to the roos, which is obviously only helpful if you have roos. Those are my laying hens.
My SO told me I was crazy when I predicted my first egg because one of the girls was refusing to get off the screened porch. She was looking at every possible container on the porch. A few hours later I presented my naysaying SO with my first egg.

 

[PotterWatch]

The one I have laying right now started at about 19wks, I think. We don't know their exact hatch date, so we just guess their age based on the feathering they had when we got them. The others I have are 13-14wks, 20wks, and 21wks. None of them are laying yet.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

I know what the books say, but I haven't had any luck putting it to use. I just culled 3 hens that weren't laying. I know they weren't laying due to having separated them and not getting any eggs from them. By the following charts and what gritstar said they should have been laying.

The Family Poultry Flock Edited by Lee Schwanz A Farmer's Digest Publication
Quick guide to productive hens
Layers and nonlayers

Character Layer Nonlayer
Comb..........................Large, smooth, bright red, glossy..........Dull, dry, shriveled, scaly.
Face...........................Bright red.........................................Yellowish tint.
Vent...........................Large, smooth, moist..........................Shrunken, puckered, dry
Pubic bones.................Thin, pliable, spread apart....................Blunt, rigid, close together.
Abdomen.....................Full, soft, pliable.................................Contracted, hard, fleshy
Skin...........................Soft, loose.........................................Thick, underlaid with fat.

High and low producers
Character High producer Low producer
(continuous laying) (brief laying)

Vent..............Bluish white..........................Yellow or flesh color.
Eye ring..........White..................................Yellow.
Ear lobe..........White..................................Yellow.
Beak...............White.................................Yellow.
Shanks............White, flattened...................Yellow, round.
Plumage..........Worn, soiled.........................Not much worn.
Moting............Late, rapid...........................Early, slow

A Guide To Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow
Culling Checklist
Body Part Good Layer Poor Layer

Carriage........................active and alert.......................lazy and listless
Eyes.............................bright and Sparkling.................dull and sunken
Comb and wattles...........large and bright......................small and pale
Shanks.........................thin and flat...........................round and full
Back.............................wide.....................................narrow or tapered
Abdomen.......................deep and soft.........................shallow and hard
Pubic bones*.................wide apart and flexible.............tight and stiff
Vent*...........................large and moist......................puckered and dry
Plumage........................warn, dry, and dirty................smooth, shiny, clean
Molt.............................late......................................early
Skin.............................bleached................................yellow

* Most reliable indicators.

 

[Heather J]

I have three brown egg layers, two green and a blue and I only know for sure that my black hen lays green eggs, and which two are the other EE, but i don't know which girl lays which eggs each day, except for my red star because her eggs are way bigger and darker than the rest of the eggs, and we added her to the group after the rest had been settled in for a while. I think unless you actually catch them laying, it's nearly impossible to know.