TAS Diary Archives
August 31, 2008
Any colour so long as it's red
Some of you mey recall from an earlier post that I am determined to keep better records of our poultry flock. At the beginning of August, I carried out a headcount and committed this to a spreadsheet. I also decided to leg ring different batches of hens - as opposed to marking individual hens. Our two RIR are Mrs Red and Mrs Green, and three of our Light Sussex are Misses Yellow, Pink and Purple respectively. This doesn't really work now that we've got bigger numbers and more Black Rocks - not enough colours, you see.
A couple of weeks ago, the three Copper Black Marans got yellow leg rings. Today, all the "grown up" Black Rocks got "red on right". The broody was given an additional yellow ring, as a mark of honour!
I also intended to ring the six Black Rock pullets we have - Chip's girls. Except there seems to be a world (or at least local) shortage of any leg rings that aren't red! However, eBay to the rescue - so I have ordered twenty of each of the available colours. I think Chip's girls will be purple.
Posted by Rosemary at August 31, 2008 8:25 PM
Comments
A couple of thoughts come to min.
One is to use multiple bands, top to bottom, and assign number values to colors. In electronics, resistors are (were?) marked in color-coded bands. The marking started nearer one end of the body of the resistor, and included two values, a scale value (base 10 exponent), and often a silver or gold precision mark (whether the resistor was made to 5% tolerance or 10%).
You can borrow the standard electronics resistor marking banding color interpretation, or invent your own - just make a chart.
http://www.hirophysics.com/Labsheet/resis-codes/resis-codes.html describes the resistor color bands and interpretation.
For instance, with five colors you could set a base-five counting system, numbered 0-4.
Red - 0
Yellow - 1
Green - 2
Pink - 3
Purple - 4
That lets you count to 24, in base five that would be Purple-Purple, in two bands.
Start the first with zero, or red-red (I would stack the rings on the same leg, and start with the top band; your preferences for your birds, lol!)
Then the second would be red-yellow (01 in base five), then red-green, on to red-purple (04). The next would be yellow-red (10), then yellow-yellow (11).
Or, check with your hardware store for a set of metal number stamps, and use them to set number codes into the plastic or light metal bands.
There are reasons to want to track an individual bird through it's life. In a mixed flock, being able to check that each was innoculated or dewormed can be convenient. Also tracking a bird back to hatch-mates and age. Changing bands always introduces an element of risk, to be able to translate this week's marking back to last week's marking, to be really assured you don't lose continuity of your records.
And do record what date you changed one marking for another, and what the previous and new markings are for each record.
If you do go to a multiple-band system, those with single bands are easily identified as being part of the previous system, with no need to change the banding. Unless you have a recurring experience of birds losing their bands ..
A couple of thoughts come to min.
One is to use multiple bands, top to bottom, and assign number values to colors. In electronics, resistors are (were?) marked in color-coded bands. The marking started nearer one end of the body of the resistor, and included two values, a scale value (base 10 exponent), and often a silver or gold precision mark (whether the resistor was made to 5% tolerance or 10%).
You can borrow the standard electronics resistor marking banding color interpretation, or invent your own - just make a chart.
http://www.hirophysics.com/Labsheet/resis-codes/resis-codes.html describes the resistor color bands and interpretation.
For instance, with five colors you could set a base-five counting system, numbered 0-4.
Red - 0
Yellow - 1
Green - 2
Pink - 3
Purple - 4
That lets you count to 24, in base five that would be Purple-Purple, in two bands.
Start the first with zero, or red-red (I would stack the rings on the same leg, and start with the top band; your preferences for your birds, lol!)
Then the second would be red-yellow (01 in base five), then red-green, on to red-purple (04). The next would be yellow-red (10), then yellow-yellow (11).
Or, check with your hardware store for a set of metal number stamps, and use them to set number codes into the plastic or light metal bands.
There are reasons to want to track an individual bird through it's life. In a mixed flock, being able to check that each was innoculated or dewormed can be convenient. Also tracking a bird back to hatch-mates and age. Changing bands always introduces an element of risk, to be able to translate this week's marking back to last week's marking, to be really assured you don't lose continuity of your records.
And do record what date you changed one marking for another, and what the previous and new markings are for each record.
If you do go to a multiple-band system, those with single bands are easily identified as being part of the previous system, with no need to change the banding. Unless you have a recurring experience of birds losing their bands ..
Posted by: Brad K. at September 1, 2008 3:02 PM