The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: bloomer on April 25, 2014, 11:33:17 am
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as we are starting to hatch chickens and i plan to keep hatching them i need a way to tell broods apart mainly so i can track ages.
can anyone recommend some decent leg bands that come in a variety of colours (i plan to do each batch a different colour) that can be fitted at about 6-8 weeks before they are allowed in the main run...
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I'm watching this one with interest - we need to start banding ours to keep track of ages too...
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Wells Poultry do coloured bands in diferent sizes - the standard size works well on my hens (easy to put on and stays on), but I have not tried any for younger birds.
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There are some lovely soft ones that pull open into a straight flexible strip and recoil into a small band when you let go. They will expand gently as the bird grows and never dig in. They're easy to remove if you need to as well.
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We've used cable ties before - cheap, and available in lots of different colours. Just put them on loosely, and trim off the 'tail'. They have to be replaced once or twice as the birds get bigger, but it's not really a hassle.
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I'm interested in this too - most specifically for very young chicks/ducklings/goslings so when they hatch in the incubator I can mark them as to which came from which egg/parents. Or maybe I could just spray colour on them at that age like farmers do with lambs?
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I use the wee cable ties as well-never had any problems with them and depending on what lines the birds are, some wear two of different colours. mine free range and I've had no problems. The spiral ones are a PIA if you are taking them off on your own I found.On my first hatch I bought some different coloured metal ones which were awful.
purple wound spray never seems to come off except in a moult if that info is of any use lol!
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i need leg tags of some form as hopefully for the foreseeable future most of my chicks will end up black!!!
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The spiral ones are a PIA if you are taking them off on your own I found.On my first hatch I bought some different coloured metal ones which were awful.
We had a horrible experience with the rigid spiral ones, I wouldn't recommend them either. One of our hens had scaly leg mite and the leg swelled inside the ring. I couldn't cut it off without digging the cutters into the bird's leg flesh so had to try and remove it as you would take a key off a key ring. Despite my best efforts to keep the open section away from the sore leg it still made a mess of the poor bird's leg, I've never used them since.
I found this on youtube, it shows those flexible bands and how easy they are to use. I expect you could write on them too, which could be useful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfTswlDSH1g (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfTswlDSH1g)
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The flexible coils mentioned by JulieWall are available from the Domestic Fowl Trust (http://www.domesticfowltrust.co.uk/products/info_pr.html) in a variety of different colours but are expensive.
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This place has a choice of sizes and if you are looking for a lot of rings works out much cheaper
http://www.sprcentre.com/Online-Shop-Categories/Leg-Rings (http://www.sprcentre.com/Online-Shop-Categories/Leg-Rings)