Collar controlled nest box door

[Smokerbill]

Put lipstick on the butt of the hen you want the hatching eggs from.

 

[redinator]

What would that cost? Not just the collars but setting up the doors too? Probably a lot cheaper to set up a few cameras so you can see what is going on if you can tell your hens apart.

Logistically I don't see how it would work. A nest for every hen? How do you get a specific hen to use a specific nest? If the door opens when the specific collar is there why could another hen not just enter the nest with her? She'd be stuck if the first hen finished and left so the door could shut. Hens generally do not just jump into any empty nest they find, even if it only opens for them. I think, at best, you'd find a lot of eggs not laid in any nest.

People have used trap nests to find out which hen is laying which egg. Usually the door closes when the first hen enters and stays shut until somebody releases her. That means someone has to be around to let her out when she has finished. You could use collars to set up a trap nest system but that takes a huge time commitment from you. If you want to know which eggs a certain hen is laying I'd isolate that hen.

All good points. My oldest chicks are 9 weeks, so I don't have any first hand experience with laying hens yet. So I was curious if anyone had tried it. Asking here before I buy something/experiment with an idea has saved me a lot of time, trouble and money.

 

[redinator]

Put lipstick on the butt of the hen you want the hatching eggs from.

Ok, not sure if that's a joke or not . . . did I mention I'm a novice . .? Save me from my own ignorance, please, lol.

 

[Smokerbill]

Ok, not sure if that's a joke or not . . . did I mention I'm a novice . .? Save me from my own ignorance, please, lol.

I've never done it but have read that it works. Eggs from that hen will show lipstick smears. I can't say for a fact it works, but it seems plausible.

Your idea for a collar activated door sounds like an interesting project.

 

[Ridgerunner]

@aart do you have a link to this video? My link is apparently broken. It's the one about putting dye in the vent to identify who is laying what egg. I can't remember who posted it.

Who is laying what egg? - YouTube

@redinator it's not really a joke though it sounds funny.

If you only have a few hens you can put food dye in the vent. When the egg is laid you can see the color on the eggshell. That is what that link is supposed to be, the details of how to do that with food dye. Some people say you can do that with different colors of lipstick. It sounds reasonable but I haven't tried it and I don't think I've seen any photos on this forum.

 

[redinator]

I've never done it but have read that it works. Eggs from that hen will show lipstick smears. I can't say for a fact it works, but it seems plausible.

Your idea for a collar activated door sounds like an interesting project.

I could picture the egg in my head w the ring as it came out, but I couldn't picture someone actually doing this . . .so I was like

 

[redinator]

Your idea for a collar activated door sounds like an interesting project.

Project being the operative word, lol.

It was more of a pondering/musing . . . I learn something new every day on the site and apparently there are better tried and true methods that I'll go with when the time comes.

 

[townchicks]

Project being the operative word, lol.

It was more of a pondering/musing . . . I learn something new every day on the site and apparently there are better tried and true methods that I'll go with when the time comes.

I think it's fun to ponder such things, you never know, someone could figure out a tweak here or a change there, and suddenly you have a workable idea. At worst , you get told, nah, there's an easier way, and you learn something new, like lipstick on their butt, lol.

 

[redinator]

I think it's fun to ponder such things, you never know, someone could figure out a tweak here or a change there, and suddenly you have a workable idea. At worst , you get told, nah, there's an easier way, and you learn something new, like lipstick on their butt, lol.

I laugh, but if I find a blue egg, every hen will have her own shade of lipstick, lol

 

[NatJ]

I haven't used the dog door version, so I wasn't aware it would stay open if the hen was by door, good to know . . .even if I only decide to get one for my dogs.

It's been a few years since I looked into it, but I'm pretty sure that was the common technology at the time. I don't remember if the door would automatically open when the dog was nearby, or if the dog had to push it open but it only unlocked when the dog was close and stayed locked the rest of the time.