[Jane-M]

Hi all - some of my girls just aren't pulling their weight. I'd like to find out who is laying and who isn't. I don't have the wherewithal to install CCTV but I have heard about marking their vents with food colouring.

Has anyone done this? Can you give me any tips please. I suppose each morning I paint the vent and any egg gets streaked with colour. But won't they poo it all off before the egg arrives?

[poultrygeist]

 :blink:

Try it and let us know 

Rob

[archiesgems]

never heard of that one. you could put strips of cloth with chalk on over the entrance to the nest boxes, that way who ever goes in will get dusted

[Jane-M]

Will do Rob. God knows what they are going to think when I upend them and slosh dye on their backsides  That and crawling along 60ft of hedge bottom trying to find where that damned silkie has been hiding her eggs for the last two weeks is going to make it a fun filled weekend.

That's another thing - how small a space can a silkie utilise for laying? 

[janeheritage]

Apologies if this is a silly question, but do you have lots of chooks all the same breed? We have 4 different hybrids laying and their eggs are instantly distinguishable. So no need for bluebottoms!

[Jane-M]

Yes sadly I have three hens who lay virtually indistinguishable brown eggs and three who lay totally indistinguishable white eggs!! and these are the girls who are not delivering as well as they have been doing.  I am trying to fathom out if there are specific ones who are not laying, or whether they are all having more days off than they did.

I don't really know why it matters to me so much but it does. Aside from feeding them all for not such a good return of course 

[janeheritage]

I'm told that the pros use a "trap nest box" so that a chook that lays has to wait to be let out. Probably not feasible for you if you're at work. But here's another thought, what about a little chookcam to spy on them?

Oh, just thought... maybe you can't tell the chickens apart either  :blink:

[Kate and her Ducks]

Think trap nest boxes are the way to go.

[hillfooter]

I'd be a little concerned about "painting"  round a chx vent with food dye and I suspect it won't work either.  I also doubt that chalk on ribbons would work either.

Trap nestboxes are the proven solution as has been mentioned.

regards

[archiesgems]

I'd be a little concerned about "painting"  round a chx vent with food dye and I suspect it won't work either.  I also doubt that chalk on ribbons would work either.

Trap nestboxes are the proven solution as has been mentioned.

regards

I agree with the dye, if not only for the stress put on the birds having their rears painted. as for chalk marking, its a very old method that has been tried and tested for years, my grandparents were poultry and pig farmers for 60 years and it worked well for them. its also a good way of dusting your birds on a regular basis. instead of chalk put strips of hessian over the pop holes and dust with mite powder, as your birds go in and out they rub againt the cloth and dust themselves. it doesnt put much on them but enough.

[hillfooter]

I'll have to try the chalk method then.

Regards