Any Ideas on How To Id without bands/zip ties?

[MuckBucket]

Hi guys
I manage the chicken portion of our feed store and have had great sucess in selling and educationg my backyard customers on the pleasures of raising baby chicks. Normally I work everyday but this term in school has me off on a very busy weekend day...Saturdays. So my delema is having my staff confident in selling the correct breed/sex of chicken to potential new owners. Ive tried zip ties but unfortunatly I cannot trust my employees to take the time to de-band them before sending them home and I fear the growth of the babies may get away from new owners. Is there any other way to ID babies so I can help the santity of my staff and also ensure my customers are getting what they are told is in the box?
Thanks!

 

[Ridgerunner]

You might try food coloring on the down. Or maybe fingernail polish on the feet.

It depends some on how many different classifications you have and how complicated you want to get. Yellow food coloring in top of the head might mean something different than yellow food coloring on the right wind, and still different than on the left wing or both wings, or maybe a left or right leg. Then blue would mean something totally different. Or blue on the head along with yellow on the left wing.

If you break it down to different colors of nail polish, they have a lof of toes on the left foot and a bunch of different toes on the right foot.

You can get as complicated as you wish, but I'd try to keep it simple.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

I think I have read about people using non toxic permanent marker on the leg in different colors for ID.

 

[Illia]

Yep, non-toxic permanent markers or food coloring works. But it can come off in a matter of days.


No nailpolish! That stuff isn't the healthiest thing to breath in the fumes of, especially for tiny little chicks.

 

[MuckBucket]

Thanks for the replies! Food coloring and markers sound good but if they come off in a matter of days that won't work, we get 100 babies in and it takes about 2 weeks to work through the stock. I can't commit the time to re-mark them every few days. I only stock about 4 breeds at any one given time. Any other ideas would be great, I may have to just build four seperate pens for the display floor..ugh.
Thanks!