How to find out which hens are laying which eggs?

[Kev]

I've got a group of pullets from a blue egg turken hen and a hatchery rooster(tinted eggs). Three started laying last week.. two hens are laying tinted, one green.

Other than being right there when the hen is laying an egg(was thinking about this question while standing for hour and half waiting for an anxious pullet to finally choose a nest and start laying! She laid a tinted egg..) or using trap nests, has anybody figured out a way to find out which hen is laying what egg?

 

[airmom1c05]

It's easy for me because I have a silkie Serama whose eggs are the smallest, a mixed hen whose eggs are light brown, and a couple of brand new exhibition buff orps who if I'm not mistaken will lay larger eggs a bit different shade than my mixed hen. I may have a problem determining which buff orp laid which egg though. Seems like somewhere I read you could smear something on their vents with color and determine it that way. A search might get a definite answer if you can figure out what key words to use in your search. I'll subscribe to this thread to see what other folks suggest.

 

[bills]

I can barely tell my hens apart from one another. My wife suggested getting different colored leg bands. That way I could figure out which birds are laying. She might just have something there!

 

[joanna]

Quote:
unless you catch them laying (in which case, you'd know which hen laid which egg), how would colored leg bands make a difference?

 

[bills]

Good question Joanna. The birds that are laying for me now, all go back into the hen house to lay, so I can peek through the window into the nest box.

I know it's pretty bad that I can't tell the birds apart yet:/, but they all have the same accent.

I did sit and watch them for awhile today, to see if I could spot any difference between them. The combs on a couple of them are somewhat smaller, and not as red as others, more of a pink color. Likewise the wattles. The ones with the bigger red combs, do look almost identical though. If they would stay still long enough, I could try counting the number of points on the comb perhaps. Do all chickens of the same breed have the same number of comb points?