How do I tell Pepper and Dotty apart?

A few months back I removed Pepper’s leg ring after reading that someone had a problem with mud being trapped under a leg ring and causing a sore, something I didn’t want to risk happening to Pepper. I knew that Dotty being a month younger than Pepper would make her easy to recognise while immature but wondered how I would tell them apart when she was fully grown. I know that their personalities are quite different but want to be able to visually tell them apart at a glance.

I have noticed that Dotty has different feather markings. She has some plain feathers that are a more brown colour on her wings but I know from past experience that you can’t rely on feather colours as when they lose feathers, they often regrow a different colour. Pepper used to have pale wing feathers but lost them and they came back in without the pale colour. I then noticed that Dotty has a black mark on her beak whereas Pepper doesn’t. I think this may be the best permanent visual way of telling them apart.

Dotty has darker wing feathers and a little black mark on her beak

Pepper has no dark wing feathers and no marks on her beak

This shows more clearly the little black marks either side of Dotty’s beak

Bluebell

Treacle

Treacle has being going through a partial molt and has a bare bottom at the moment. Her dark pin feathers are already showing though, so she should be feathered again quite soon. The other three girls have maintained their fluffy bottoms.

Treacle has a bare bottom

Fluffy bottoms

We had a bag of sand left over from the concreting last weekend so I decided to add it to the corner without wood chip which I leave for the girls to scratch in. I hope it may improve the drainage and feel it certainly can’t do any harm.

Sand added to the corner and lightly forked in

Bluebell is a terrific egg layer, she laid fifteen days in a row then missed one day, laid ten days in a row then missed one day then laid five days in a row then missed one day. For this time of year that is amazing. Treacle and Pepper were laying every other day with two or three days in a row sometimes but recently since we have had freezing temperatures, Pepper has missed two days and Treacle has just missed three days. I put Treacle’s extra missed day down to a partial molt as well as the cold.

I held my hand over Dotty to see if she would squat but not yet. I don’t think she will be too long now though, she is growing up at last.