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Metal wing bands??

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clhbubba

clhbubba

Songster
11 Years
Nov 9, 2008
286
1
129
Central Oklahoma
I was at Atwoods today and as soon as I walked in I could hear chicks! Of course I went directly to the back. They were full of ducklings, goslings, keets and chicks of various kinds. They had a tub full of sexed pullets so I just had to have some. They had metal bands on one of their wings that I thought were clipped onto them. Once I got them home and went to remove them, I realized they were through the skin on the wing! I was horrified. My DH and I had a hard time removing them. The poor chicks certainly felt it. I cannot immagine how it felt when they were first pierced with these pieces of metal. The chicks are so small, the band was weighing their little wing down. I've never seen them with these things on them. Is this something that some hatcheries do commonly? Those poor chicks:(
 
I have never heard of something like that, but I was talking to my mother the other day wondering if something existed that could be clamped onto their wing instead of clipping them when they fly out of the yard. Maybe it is something like that? I certainly wasn't envisioning something painful to the animal, though.
sad.png
 
When I asked about these clips, they said it was on when they were shipped so the store could tell the pullets apart. These are metal clamps, about 1/2 an inch long(once folded over) and about 1/8 in wide of very thin metal. One short end has a dull point on it, which is what was pierced through the skin on the wing and then it was folded over and clamped together. Certainly left a whole in their wing. They are not large enough or heavy enough to have kept them from flying as adults. We were very gentle about removing them, but I cringe at the thought of someone thinking they can just pull them off. They'll break the wing, or pull it off.
 
The clips are on Atwoods pullets. Not on the roos. They come from Ideal like that according to the young man working. We used a pair of side cutters to take them off and the birds never even felt it. I guess I haven't seen chicks from anywhere else so I think I would be surprised not to see them.
 
Thank you for your posts... I am new to the board and I have 5 of these banded pullets and I was wondering what their purpose was and how should I go about removing them. I didn't know if they were suppose to have them on all of their life.
 
breeders in show poultry often use the wingbands for identification processes. we used to and it never hurt them putting them on... but i guess after the meat/skin/muscles etc grow around the metal ripping them back out would hurt some.. most people put them on later in life (a couple weeks old..maybe months) so it doesn't effect their wings with it being too heavy
 
The pullets I purchased from Atwoods (also from Ideal Hatchery) had those metal clips. They are made of aluminum and color coded by batch hatch.
I was able to use needle nose pliers to carefully open the clip and slip the metal strip thru the punched hole in the bend of the wing. I washed the area and applied Neosporin if the hole was bleeding (only one of ten chicks). The babies have healed nicely...most of the holes sealed up. Two look like a pierced ear.
Hope this helps.
 
OK, so last night after reading this thread I decided to remove these bands. It is terrible they were grown in to their wing and their feathers were stuck to it. I had to get them moist and stick my fingernail between the band and the bird. They were making quite a stink when I was doing it which leads me to believe that it is hurting them.. I DON"T LIKE THIS. Can't they tag them a little more humane?
 
When I got my geese they each had a leg band, not sure if left leg meant girl or boy. It was just a plastic thing they put AROUND the leg. Was super easy to get off too, like 10 seconds if that. Does Ideal do that to all their chicks or just ones going to Co-ops?
 

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