how do you guys keep track of who’s laying and when?

[froggyphore]

i see a lot of people on here have a pretty accurate and specific recent laying history for their individual hens, how do y’all keep track? when i have days off i go out and check on them fairly frequently but even then i don’t really know whos laying what aside from what breed, i certainly couldn’t say from memory the last time a specific lady layed. do y’all have cameras or something? lol. i want to make sure i have a grasp on whats going on but i don’t know how you guys manage! tyia

 

[Nicrom]

Yes!! I too look forward to seeing how people do it! Good thread!

 

[Sally PB]

The only way I can keep track is by checking for eggs often and writing down who laid what size (weight in grams) and about what time.

No technology, just a pen and notebook. Yeah, I'm old fashioned that way.

 

[quackingdom]

My ducks almost never lay in the coop and instead run to their nests when they're let out in the morning. So we watch them and see who goes where. We have to do that from time to time anyway so as to not miss any hidden nests.

The chickens often lay later in the day, but my hybrid layer chickens are very consistent and usually don't change nests, so all I have to do is catch the chicken in the nest once and I know who's laying there. And for the ones that lay in clutches and go broody, I can note when somebody new starts laying in a nest, and then I wait for them to go broody and can then attribute all those eggs to them.

It's not foolproof, of course. If I know four chickens lay in one nest, and one day I get three eggs, I won't know who didn't lay.

We usually don't know exactly who all is laying where, but we like to keep track as best as we can so we can get some idea which birds are the best layers and such.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I can match all my chickens to the eggs so it's easier for me to know which chicken is laying and when (and I had the time to stand around and visually confirm that). I have a mix of breeds that lay different colors, so that makes a big difference.

 

[MedicDog]

I've got a small mixed flock (different egg colours and sizes) so I use the Flockstar app to keep track. It's really easy to use and keep track once you know what egg belongs to who. You could have a rough guess or keep an eye on wattles and combs, the redder they are, the more likely they are laying.

I've put some Flockstar screenshots;

 

[Smileybans]

I love the app idea. I bought a book for keeping track of how many eggs I get in a day. But it’s only for this year.
I know when my brahmas are laying because they aren’t quiet about it. I swear they’re louder than the roosters are. I also have pullets that lay different colored eggs so that makes it easy to tell who is laying. One of my OEs always lays an egg with dark green speckles on it. I know which one it is because she isn’t that quiet either.
It’s the silkies I can’t tell apart. They’re super quiet about laying and all their eggs look the same. The only way I know who is laying what egg is when one of them goes broody.

 

[gtaus]

I have a small flock of 10 hens. I have one hen that lays green eggs, one that lays white eggs, one that lays dark brown speckled eggs, but the other seven hens all lay brown eggs and I can't tell which hens are laying eggs and which are not.

I had a Black Astralorp go broody on me about a week ago, so she is not laying anymore. Sometimes you can tell when a chicken goes into molt and has stopped laying eggs. But for the most part, I cannot match most of my brown eggs to my hens. I still get more eggs than Dear Wife and I can eat, so I'm not too concerned about which hen may or may not be laying eggs.

Although it would be interesting to me to track egg laying per specific hen, I really did not get a backyard flock primarily for eggs. Eggs around here cost less than $1 per dozen at the big box store, so that is cheaper than raising my own flock for eggs. I do not get hung up about too many specifics on the egg laying production and just try to go with the flow, so to speak. That's how I deal with it.

 

[aart]

I can match all my chickens to the eggs so it's easier for me to know which chicken is laying and when (and I had the time to stand around and visually confirm that). I have a mix of breeds that lay different colors, so that makes a big difference.

I had this scenario at one point....now it's like who the heck knows!
I just count daily egg numbers...I use a spread sheet to track all kinds of things.

 

[jreardon1918]

I had this scenario at one point....now it's like who the heck knows!
I just count daily egg numbers...I use a spread sheet to track all kinds of things.

We are currently dow to 4 laying hens. One chocolate layer, one white layer, two light brown. My spreadsheet shows date, number eggs , some days I add color. Like this.

4/6/2021	4		b,b,w,c
4/7/2021	2		b,c
4/8/2021	2		w,b
4/9/2021	1		b
4/10/2021	3		bbw

Where we only have 4 we know who the slacker is. The one that is currently broody.