Who Is Laying These Eggs?

[TeriNick50]

I have 4 feathered friends - 2 Rhode Island Reds and 2 Golden Comets. They are 24 weeks old.
On December 1st, our first egg appeared.

And every day since, one of the girls has left us a gift.

Today, I opened the coop door and found a RIR squatting on the nest infront of an egg.
When I picked up the egg, it was stone cold.

Did Rosie lay the egg or was she just checking out what her sister left behind earlier in the morning?
Is it possible I disturbed her process? I closed the door quickly, however; when I went into the run to give the girls their morning treat, she was out the coop door and eager to start eating the yogurt.

How can I discover *who* is laying these eggs without isolating them from each other?
And does it really matter? LOL!

 

[Uzuri]

If you have time to hang around with them a bit and see who's behaving in certain ways, that's one way to tell. I was able to tell for sure that Miss Bossy Beak was laying because I caught her in the nest a couple times, gave her 10 minutes privacy, and came back to a hot egg -- though I suspected her long before that because she got very, very excited, almost proud when I came to collect my second ever egg; hopped right up in my face, and if chickens could grin, she was grinning ear to ear. I doubt that most chickens have that kind of egg attitude though!

I figured out that one of (but not which one of) my Wellies was laying due to heavily speckled eggs showing up (and showing up in the run, something Bossy Does Not Do, caps intentional

). It helps, of course, if you've got breeds with slightly different egg hallmarks. I strongly suspect that my Javas are not yet laying due to hearing that they are late bloomers, which means that having two non-speckled eggs yesterday, one of which was tiny, means that Bossy's sister Wyandotte decided to start up. In a small flock it's a matter of process of elimination!

I've heard of people dropping food-coloring on the hens' vents, too, but that's getting a too bit up close and personal with the wrong end of a chicken for me.

 

[TeriNick50]

As suspected, I interrupted Rosie (RIR) this morning during her egg laying process.
I believe it was her first egg because it looks nothing like the others we've gathered over the last 8 days.
This egg was smaller, pale in color and was speckled with blood.

Now it seems, two of the four are laying!

Yippee!

Uzuri: I agree with you ... no food coloring tricks for me either!