Lipstick and Food Dye Marking

[NatJ]

I'll probably do dye and lipstick then. Neither would hurt hatching eggs, right?

I cannot think of any way they would hurt hatching eggs, if food coloring or lipstick was streaked or smeared on the egg. If lipstick was covering the entire egg I might worry that it couldn't get enough air, but I wouldn't expect that much lipstick to be on the egg.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I cannot think of any way they would hurt hatching eggs, if food coloring or lipstick was streaked or smeared on the egg. If lipstick was covering the entire egg I might worry that it couldn't get enough air, but I wouldn't expect that much lipstick to be on the egg.

Okay, whew. That was my other concern

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree, it should not hurt the eggs at all. When I was a kid one of my chores was marking the eggs to put under a broody. Sometimes I'd use ink, sometimes the flat of a soft pencil. A few times a crayon. It did not seem to matter.

 

[5 Points Wingfeather]

This thread has been very helpful. I have one more question. If I do the lipstick/dye trick, will it only work for the next day or will it work for like a week?

I have two hens in a pen of 7 hens that I want to get eggs off of to hatch and I would hate to do that for 2 weeks to pile up 12 eggs.


Or maybe once I do it the first night and I know which bird is laying which egg I’ll be able just to look at the eggs and tell?


@aart @Ridgerunner @MysteryChicken

 

[Happy hen lover]

Think I have it in the right forum, not 100% sure though, sorry.

So, next year I need to mark layers so I know what breeds the eggs came from.

I was originally going to just do food dye, but that's only 3 or 4 colors then, and I really just need more than that.

So then I started thinking about lipstick, because I know there's at least 5 different colors I can use.

What do I need to know for these methods to work? Do will different lipstick shades be easy to tell? Or will most reds look pretty close?

(Note, I'd be applying it the night before, since I can't make myself get up early enough)

Having how well did lipstick work?
@JacinLarkwell

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Not sure yet. Things have gotten a bit hectic so I have yet to test it out honestly

 

[Happy hen lover]

Oh I was wondering cause there are very different lipsticks out there, even at dollar stores. Sparkly, brownish, orangish. The video for dye was something else!

 

[aart]

This thread has been very helpful. I have one more question. If I do the lipstick/dye trick, will it only work for the next day or will it work for like a week?

I don't think it'd last a week.
@Tre3hugger just did this, they may know.

 

[Tre3hugger]

@5 Points Wingfeather yesterday was day 4 and the gel food coloring i used is still barely visible. I am choosing not to reapply because now I can tell the difference between the eggs. If I was planning to reapply I probably woulda done it today, day 5. This is how the eggs looked with the food coloring.

 

[5 Points Wingfeather]

@5 Points Wingfeather yesterday was day 4 and the gel food coloring i used is still barely visible. I am choosing not to reapply because now I can tell the difference between the eggs. If I was planning to reapply I probably woulda done it today, day 5. This is how the eggs looked with the food coloring.
View attachment 3043704

Awesome! Thank you so much!