Telling your chickens apart😂

[Sara S]

Anyone else hate how people are like “you probably change the name everytime” when you have 2+ of the same looking chicken. My brother does that. Like you don’t see the different looks, feather patterns, her face shape, the size, one wing is darker than the other, the eggs are one shade darker ths. Each other? Like pay attention how do you tell apart your chickens?

 

[PippinTheChicken]

Pippin and fries are both white silkie hens. Same age, size, and colour.
I can tell them apart by any feature, feet, crest, tail, etc without even looking at their leg bands (leg bands are there for my mum to tell them apart)

Fries & Pippin

 

[Bonkerelli]

I had 3 sets of basically "twins". Usually look for subtle differences. Maybe bigger, sound different, slightly different coloring or variations of feather pattern. I even figured out whose egg is which. Even with that it's not guaranteed.

 

[PippinTheChicken]

I have 12 chickens and I would never forget their name! I do call them nicknames most of the time... Some examples
Thor = Tooter
Noodles = Tutti Frutti
Loki = Locust
Nutmeg = Nutty
Peanut = PeeNi

 

[Gizabelle]

This is why I like a mixed flock. Not because I can't tell them apart when everyone's calm and just hanging out, but because I know in the event of a predator or other mishap I'd be upset and second guess myself.
That, and I love the variety of colors, shapes and personalities.

 

[pony007]

Its a struggle for sure! I have 5 dark Brahmas, 4 all look the same and the fifth is much darker with lower quality penciling. Of the 4 that look the same, I can distinguish one of them because she makes different inquisitive clucks, the other three I can't tell apart at all. They all had names when they were chicks, but just kinda blended together as their feathers grew in. I should have banded them, but oh well haha.

 

[Sara S]

Awewwwwww

 

[theoldchick]

I go by the shape of the comb. If I ever get chickens with tiny combs I'll be in trouble.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Usually by combs and facial features in birds whose feather color is identical. Sometimes I leg band them to be sure, like with my silkied Black and Blue Cochin pullets who are hard to tell apart and haven't grown their combs in fully yet. I can tell Coco by her facial features because she always looks a little worried, and Washburne is the smallest so she's usually pretty easy to tell, but everyone else is just too similar.

My two Barred Plymouth Rock bantam pullets, Skeeter and Findlay, were (I thought) impossible to tell apart, but when Skeet lost her leg band somehow (and Finnie just never had one so I had nothing left to go off of), I had to scrutinize pictures I'd taken of them to figure out the difference. Now they both have leg bands, just to be safe, but I can tell them apart easily just by looking at their faces because I had to look so closely at their pictures to properly band them.

 

[ThinMintTheChicken]

Our 2 Black Australorps look completely different. Plum's face is wayy darker than Grape's and Grape is bigger and stockier. Plum is also the friendliest and her face shape is different.

And our 2 Delaware hens are almost identical but Judy gives you a judgy look and is much friendlier than Cupcake. Cupcake also has darker barring around her neck and Judy only has a couple black spots.

We have 2 EE's who are similar but Molly has dark brown neck feathers and dark brown eyes while Polly has orange-brown neck feathers and bright orange eyes. They are both skittish so I can't tell by personality.

Then we also have 2 Brown Legbars (unfortunately one passed away because of an illness but we do have another 5-almost 6 week old Legbar). Agnus has a big crest and a really weird eye. Its only one and its been like that since she was a chick, our Speckled Sussex also has had a wonky eye since we got them as day-olds. Anyways Agnus's pupil is vertical (she can still see out of it just fine) and then our other Legbars name is Edith who has a tiny crest and a smaller comb. The little 5 week old one is named Gertrude and it looks like she will have a large crest as well.

Finally we have 2 Calico Princess's. Popcorn lives in the barn with Thin Mint and a few others (and our spurred hen who likes to beat up on the roosters. She acts JUST like a rooster, she even will shuffle-what I call the mating dance-the hens and she has a giant flopped over comb) while Candy Corn lives outside and has light orange, almost buff, barring. Popcorn has bright orange barring.