I want to know which eggs are laid by a certain hen

[StinkyAcres]

I just treated one of my hens with antibiotics and can't eat her eggs for a couple weeks so I want to be able to tell if an egg is hers. What is the best way to do this? I've seen food coloring applied to the vent as one recommendation. How long does that last?

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

I was gonna suggest food coloring on the vent. Id assume you would have to put it on every 2 days at least.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Might not work depending on how many birds you have and the types of eggs they lay, but if you can positively ID her egg by isolating her for a day or two in a crate, you could pull out her eggs that way as well.

 

[StinkyAcres]

Might not work depending on how many birds you have and the types of eggs they lay, but if you can positively ID her egg by isolating her for a day or two in a crate, you could pull out her eggs that way as well.

She is already isolated and I want to put her back in with the rest of the flock. She laid an egg today but her eggs look pretty much the same as five of my other hens'.

 

[KayisforKale]

I read somewhere on this site that you could apply lipstick to her vent. Should last longer than food dye, anyway.

 

[StinkyAcres]

I read somewhere on this site that you could apply lipstick to her vent. Should last longer than food dye, anyway.

That's a good idea, but I don't have lipstick! I suppose I can get some... Makes me laugh thinking of buying lipstick specifically for my chicken's bottom.

 

[wrathsfarm]

That's a good idea, but I don't have lipstick! I suppose I can get some... Makes me laugh thinking of buying lipstick specifically for my chicken's bottom.

Make sure you ask the make up counter person which color they think would be the best for your hens fluffy butt vent. You definitely don't want it to clash with her wardrobe....

 

[Mrs. K]

Keep her in a cage until she lays. Then let her out with the girls, gather her off the roost at night, and back in the cage - until she lays. Thing is you don't want to make a mistake with this, you want to know, and know you know her egg.

 

[NatJ]

I just treated one of my hens with antibiotics and can't eat her eggs for a couple weeks so I want to be able to tell if an egg is hers. What is the best way to do this? I've seen food coloring applied to the vent as one recommendation. How long does that last?

Food coloring sort-of works.

I have put food coloring in some hens' vents and gotten eggs smeared with that color, sometimes for up to a week.

But I have also put food coloring in hens' vents and failed to get colored eggs. (If every hen laid, and no egg had color, I knew it wasn't working right!) I don't know what the difference was, because sometimes it was the very same hens, same food coloring, and (I thought) put on the same way.

If you get food coloring on the feathers around her vent, she can accidentally spread it to other eggs in the same nest. (If one hen has blue food coloring, but three eggs have blue smears... I've had it happen after a hen wiggled at the wrong moment when I tried to drip the food coloring in the right place.)

If you want to try the food coloring, keep her in the cage until you get at least one egg that clearly shows the food coloring, to make sure it worked.

Keep her in a cage until she lays. Then let her out with the girls, gather her off the roost at night, and back in the cage - until she lays. Thing is you don't want to make a mistake with this, you want to know, and know you know her egg.

^ If you want to be really sure about the eggs, this sounds like the best method. It gives her some time out of the cage, but lets you be completely sure which eggs are hers. Once she lays her egg for the day, you can be pretty sure she won't lay another one that day.

 

[StinkyAcres]

Thank you all for the suggestions. It sounds too difficult to reliably mark her eggs. She doesn't lay every day so if I kept her in a cage until she laid she wouldn't come out some days. I might try letting her outside in the duck pen which is separate from the chicken pen, at least on days with good weather.