How to dye vents to determine who lays what?

[MissChick@dee]

Not sure which is gonna be worse....
Her finding out where her lipstick has been or trying to explain why I'm putting lipstick on a chicken?

 

[micstrachan]

I’ve done this and used gel food coloring with a little paint brush. Good luck! Heads up, the feathers there will stay stained for a loooong time.

 

[tweetzone86]

Cheap lip stick works best.
Now all you need is 23 different shades.

Nope only 12 They're 23 weeks old, but I only have 12 pullets

 

[tweetzone86]

Okay this question has been asked before. Boy there were some funny pages on the internet when you search this topic. From what I read the one that made common sense to me was to use Bingo Doppler’s. Ya know the little plastic bottles with sponges on the lid. Didn’t look up how much they were up you can get them at craft or game sections of like Walmart (they have everything don’t they?)
Fill them with nontoxic food dye. The only thing that throws me off is, it would dry right? And laying hens vents are very moist so... dunno.
You’ll hate me for saying this but that’s why I got hens that lay different colors. Sorry I’m not much help.

I thought about it, but I'm going to be selling the eggs to pay for their feed so I wanted all RIR higher brown egg producers. Plus, I got these ones mail order from TSC to avoid accidental roosters (and also because I missed Chick Days by three days- oops) so ten was the minimum (and they sent me 12 and not a male in the lot- woohoo!). I technically can only have 10 on a city lot in my town, so the other two are "pets that produce" for my kids.

Besides, I promised them they could keep 2 into retirement The rest will go in the freezer after their laying days drop way low and I've raised up new pullets to replace them. When all the new ones are laying, the old ones will be frozen. When I can only have 10 birds/12 birds, I need to be more practical.

Now, when we finally get acreage, that's gonna be a whole different story and I plan on having the rainbow With plenty of producing layers for egg sales as well But at that point I can afford to have a few "pretty egg" layers amongst my flock

 

[tweetzone86]

Good. M

I’ve done this and used gel food coloring with a little paint brush. Good luck! Heads up, the feathers there will stay stained for a loooong time.

Good. Maybe then I can learn to tell them apart so I can finally name them...that is a great idea though! I have plenty of gel food coloring because in my pre-chronic-illness life I was a cake decorator Now an author and "suburban homesteader/mini-farmer" til we get acreage then I'll be an actual farmer

I'll use q-tips so I don't have to reuse my applicator if said hen needs a bit more of the same color...because that's just gross

At any rate, I've got lots and lots of colors, and at this point they're getting a bit old so I can sacrifice them for this no problem

 

[aart]

I’ve done this and used gel food coloring with a little paint brush. Good luck! Heads up, the feathers there will stay stained for a loooong time.

So did it work?
Any tips on application...like where exactly so that it doesn't get pooped off before egg is laid?

Maybe then I can learn to tell them apart so I can finally name them

Do you have them banded yet?
That would be the first step....
...tho maybe the food coloring will last forever, so spread it far and wide over each bird

 

[tweetzone86]

So did it work?
Any tips on application...like where exactly so that it doesn't get pooped off before egg is laid?

Do you have them banded yet?
That would be the first step....
...tho maybe the food coloring will last forever, so spread it far and wide over each bird

Banded?

I haven't done it yet. I will wait til they appear to have laid today so I don't freak them out prior to laying. Prob do it this evening. Yesterday I woke up at 3 am and couldn't get back to sleep and I was out like a light before 7 last night...

 

[townchicks]

Watching just because I'm curious, I can tell my 3 apart easily, but someday, this might come in handy.

 

[tweetzone86]

Watching just because I'm curious, I can tell my 3 apart easily, but someday, this might come in handy.

Yeah. My issue is, with exception to one that has slightly lighter feathers, all my RIR pullets look nearly identical. There's only very, very subtle differences and it's difficult to tell. I can't go by comb because some are bigger some are a bit smaller and I know they're likely still growing.

 

[Ducksandchickens]

I have used paint and paintbrush before! Like @micstrachan said the pant sticks! It works though