Do you have identification on your chickens? Leg bands?

[azygous]

Although I can tell all thirteen of my girls apart, I like to use different colored leg bands so I can see at a glance the most similar ones without studying their differentiating features. It's useful to monitor behavior differences that might indicate a problem cropping up.

I couldn't find real bird leg bands anywhere, so I went to Wal-Mart and bought a package of plastic hair bands - super cheap and they come in all colors and sizes and they stretch. The only drawback is if they get caught on something, they break and then that chicken is bandless. They last quite awhile, though.

 

[they'reHISchickens]

We can tell most of ours apart, except for the 6 black orps who look identical. Those 6 have different colored zip ties on the left leg which we put on when they were about 6 months old. This year's group will have the right leg tagged.
I learned from experience, though-- those 6 blacks are from 2 different batches, 3 weeks apart. At the 8 week stage, we could no longer tell one group from another.
We are hatching a few batches of marans this spring close together. Not sure yet how we will mark the chicks of each batch, or if it is necessary to mark them. The marans have slight differences in coloring/hackle shading.
Where I see it mandatory to identify identical chickens is in knowing their age so you can cull the older ones or those not laying. We have a pair of 3 yr old orp hens and a pair of 3 yr old EE hens. One of each of those pairs has not laid for at least 6 months. We can tell those breeds apart but when the black orps reach that stage of life, the colored tags will be life-savers for some!
I hope we can hatch more splash orps this year. The variety in the splash should help us tell them apart.

 

[MustLoveHens]

Quote:
I used colored, plastic, numbered spiral leg bands on my show stock. Different colors for different lines I was breeding. I had to use numbered bands because it is a rquirement in showing birds to have the birds identified prior to entering the show. I know many breeders who used wing bands as well. I like the idea of wing banding because the bands dont come off like the leg bands do. If you are raising your chickens as pets, you would not need to leg or wing band until either your breed them or show them. There are a number of companies that sell both leg and wing bands.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
I am curious about this. Do you put the bands on as chicks? Then change them out to bigger bands when they get big enough for grown up bands, with numbers?

 

[ThinkingChickens]

Thank you for all the great feedback. We'll only have three to start, and they'll be different breeds, but I just wondered if these were needed for identification. What if my chickens are stolen. LOL Can they be microchipped like my dogs? LOL, just kidding. I guess I won't need the bands so much. Sounds like Mabel Maude and Ethel will be easily identifiable.