How to "Mark" Chickens for Identification

[MetallicBlue]

No idea what size mm is. My leghorns have I think 11s and 12s. I didn't put bands on them until they were pretty well full grown. We snip them off and put new ones on (same color of course) once a year. I need to do it again. The rest of the birds I can tell apart by looking, but not them.

I get mine from Strombergs. They seem to have come down in price.
https://www.strombergschickens.com/prod_detail_list/spiral-bands

 

[Cshafer12]

Does anyone think loose yarn would work? Not super loose, just enough to grow, and could be snipped off?

 

[aart]

Does anyone think loose yarn would work? Not super loose, just enough to grow, and could be snipped off?

Welcome to BYC!
Might work, would be hard to get on just right tho.
Small zipties work well for me, but you need a set of small clippers.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/leg-banding-with-zipties.68075/

 

[Nina Cruise]

Hey all, I've tried the nail polish, clever chooks got it off with a bit of help from the button quails, spiral ring on the other hand are very good, poor things hated hem at first but finally accepted them and now we can tell the girls from the boys but the buttons, any ideas they are they are from 5 days to 1 day and we can only identify 1 of them little quazy he's my poor boy

 

[TK421]

Nail polish would wear off after awhile. Zip ties left a little loose and trimmed closely would work. I’ve seen many birds banded this way. It’s a good idea to have a nail file handy to file down sharp edges.

 

[kj7ym]

I just took a series of colored felt tip pens. Went out at night and placed different colored strips on their wings. We are trying to solve an egg breaking problem.

 

[abundancefarm]

Does anyone think loose yarn would work? Not super loose, just enough to grow, and could be snipped off?

I would think yarn wouldn’t hold up to the rigors of chicken life. It would get wet over and over, get rubbed around in the dirt, and perhaps you will be picked up by other chickens. It does seem like a very soft, Humane Approach.

 

[Pojojuniper]

I was considering making a light watercolor with food coloring and brushing it on a few feathers, a different color for each bird? Would that be harmful?

 

[aart]

I was considering making a light watercolor with food coloring and brushing it on a few feathers, a different color for each bird? Would that be harmful?

Not likely to last long, if it worked at all.
Bit give it a try, food coloring won't harm them.