Best and easy way to mark new hatched chicks?

[pride&joy]

I am about to incubate several same breed chicks from different lines and would like to keep track of who is who. I have some of the small spiral leg bands but was wondering what other options are out there? Have heard of a toe punch? Thank you in advance for your help.

Ish

 

[poultrycrazy]

I color a little dot on there back with a crayola marker but id stay away from red cuz they tend to pick at red.

 

[Cadjien_De_Louisiane]

Toe punch or colored zip ties

 

[CapricornFarm]

Food color on a cotton ball, apply to head

 

[chickmchickie]

my grandmother used food colouring on the top of the head too.. she also painted a toe nail too with nail polish... but as it was posted dont use red lol

 

[cmom]

I use colored sharpies and put a mark under their chins on their necks.

 

[pride&joy]

Quote:
can I use a toe punch on a newly hatched chicks, I like the zip tie idea it would have to be an extra small ones. I have seen the spiral leg bands but found them to hard to take on and off those small, soft little feet.

 

[pride&joy]

as always thank you all for your advise............................

 

[KDailey]

I usually just have two different boxes and go through all the chicks at least once a day and check everybody. When one chick as been checked it goes into the empty box and that way I don't check one chick twice or miss one. Then when they're about a week old they're startin to get feathers and are easier to ID