Adding bracelets to legs

[Kaitlynd12]

I can see where leg bands on ducks and their inevitable mucking about could be problem.

I have a small flock, under 20 over winter, and still band birds for IDing.
Many of my birds look alike and after they grow up it's pretty hard for me to tell them apart.
I alternate leg side for year hatched and use colors for further delineation,
and keep a running roster with notes on individual birds.

In 7 years I have never had a ziptie tighten on it's own.
Yes, you need to clip off the ziptail close to the lock.
Yes, you have to check them regularly as the birds grows, like with any band, and even after.
It takes a bit of practice to size them for less frequent changes due to leg growth.

Red bands are not problem.
If the color red sparked cannibalism, chickens would eat all their brethren's combs and wattles.

Here's how I do ziptie leg bands:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/leg-banding-with-zipties.68075/

I put them on right out of the incubator to keep various special crosses ID'd.
View attachment 2343665

Thank you. This helped me out a lot. My chickens are 6 months old and I have them banded with zip ties. I only have 9 chickens, but I can really only tell one of them apart from the others. Guess I don’t have the best chicken eyes