Heritage Large Fowl - Phase II

[bnjrob]

Have I asked here if anyone has experience with wing bands. I think they would be my best chance at keeping track of hatch dates and matings next season. I'd like to be able to band right after hatch ... I've seen bands for "day old chicks" and wonder if anyone here bands that early.

In the meantime, I was a shopping for colored zip ties at Amazon.com, and kept reading reviews from people who use them to keep chickens sorted.

I think MagicChicken wing bands her birds.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

We sometimes lose zip ties, so I want something more permanent that I can put on right away after hatch before the chicks start trying to confuse me. I'll for sure use colored zip ties on legs, too. I like being able to tell a bird's general ID from far away, and the colored zip ties are great for that. But I don't tend to put those on until the birds are a lot older.

I'm hoping someone has experience wing banding on day 1. That would be the most convenient here. But it makes me nervous.

 

[miss heny]

its simple, spread wing, take pointy end, shove through skin, clamp shut.

just make sure the buggier can't run for the hills.

 

[MagicChicken]

Have I asked here if anyone has experience with wing bands. I think they would be my best chance at keeping track of hatch dates and matings next season. I'd like to be able to band right after hatch ... I've seen bands for "day old chicks" and wonder if anyone here bands that early.

In the meantime, I was a shopping for colored zip ties at Amazon.com, and kept reading reviews from people who use them to keep chickens sorted.

Wing bands are a great way to keep track of individual birds. They rarely come off. They can be hard to read once the bird is grown out, but the birds don't lose the wing bands as often as they lose numbered plastic leg bands. Replacing leg bands messes up my record keeping which makes it harder to track individual birds, so I keep most of my records by wing band number. It has been invaluable because my breed (black javas) requires yellow soles. Yellow is especially tricky because it is a recessive trait, plus it can fade with age, breeding condition, diet and stress. The wing bands allow me to track the sole color of each bird at different times in their lives. If they have bright yellow soles as chicks and their soles fade to white over time, I know they still have the genetics for yellow soles even though the yellow has faded. Which is a useful thing to know when you are setting up breeding pairs.

I wing band my birds when they are about a week old. I keep the hatching eggs separated by breeding pair while they are in the hatcher. When I pull the chicks out of the hatcher I toe punch them so I know which breeding pair they came from. (A dab of paint may accomplish the same thing. Don't really know. Never tried it.) I keep the chicks in an indoor brooder for a few days to make sure they are healthy and active. Then I wing tag them and move them to the outdoor brooder when they are 5-10 days old. After they have grown out I will add numbered plastic leg bands to the birds I want to watch, because the numbered leg bands are much easier to see. But I keep most of my records by wing band number because it is more permanent.

The biggest trick with wing tags (aka wing bands) is making sure you have them on right. Every brand has its own special applicator device, usually purchased separately from the bands. With the brand I use, if I accidentally load the band upside down in the applicator the band looks like it goes on correctly but it doesn't latch right. Chicks will throw wing bands if they aren't clamped correctly. It's easy once you've figured it out, but it takes me a couple of minutes of refresher time each season to make sure I'm putting the things on correctly.

I've been leery of zip ties because my birds grow pretty fast and I don't want to deal with replacing the ties as the birds grow out. On the other hand, I saw a bunch of colored zip ties at Michael's (craft store) the other day. If they are available locally at a reasonable price I may reconsider. Especially since I've got several different complementary pairings set up right now. It's way more pairings than I've had previously and the record keeping is going to be exponentially harder to follow. It's always something.

I am more comfortable wing banding my birds when they are a few days old, rather than day old. It can be hard to position the wing band properly when the bird is right out of the hatcher. Their wings are so small at that age! Your mileage may vary. Let us know what you decide to do.

 

[neopolitancrazy]

...wing bands. I think they would be my best chance at keeping track of hatch dates and matings next season. I'd like to be able to band right after hatch ...

In the meantime, I was a shopping for colored zip ties...

I have used numbered zip ties, blank zip ties and wing bands, and like them all, for reasons already cited by other thread members. I, too, pair mate and keep the eggs from each pair separated during hatching. I use a Sharpie pen to color a dot on a yellow-downed area of the chicks, and combine them in the brooder. At about one week of age, I wing band each chick, noting parentage and hatch date. You could wing band at hatch, but I find it easier when they are just a bit bigger. When I separate them into gender-based pens (~8 weeks) I place a blank zip tie on their leg, one color per family per season. When they are chosen as breeders, they get a numbered zip tie. This is working well for me.

Best wishes,
Angela

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Thank you, both, @neopolitancrazy & @MagicChicken .

I think next breeding season I *MIGHT* be in a position to have to hatch eggs from more than one breeding pen at a time. I'd vastly prefer to broody raise all the chicks (so far that's the only way I've raised the breeding birds), so was thinking if I wing band everyone ASAP, then I can slip incubator-hatched chicks under broody hens (if any are available) after.

So ... if wing banding a few days after hatch is more recommended, I still need a way to ID the fresh chicks.

We've noted with our line of Delawares that their toe webbing is tiny at hatch, so toe punching right out of the hatcher isn't an option.

What I could do is dye their fluff ... they are yellow so that would be easy enough, I could use different colors for different matings, or different places on the chick, depending ... then wing band when they're a tad older.

On a side note: I'd like to hatch earlier in the season this year, which will probably mean the earlier hatches would have to be hand raised because the broody "on switch" at this latitude seems to be about the second week of March for an April Fools Day hatch, not early enough IMO. I am NOT looking forward to hand-incubating and hand-raising chicks. Not at all.

This may sound dumb ... but I have vision problems, and I think I *MIGHT* be able to see wing bands better than leg bands because I can tuck the bird under my arm and stick my face right down into the bird's shoulder and take my time without the bird struggling as much as when I have to flip them over and hold their legs still. Right now, I need an assistant to deal with the zip ties. Part of my thing is that I totally lose track of something if it moves, and chickens move their legs a lot.

 

[neopolitancrazy]

Thank you, both, @neopolitancrazy
 & @MagicChicken

What I could do is dye their fluff ... they are yellow so that would be easy enough, I could use different colors for different matings...

Sharpie-dots are probably a LOT easier than dyeing an entire chick.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Sharpie-dots are probably a LOT easier than dyeing an entire chick.

Of course!

I was thinking sharpie or food coloring drops in different colors or specific locations on the chick (head, back, belly, plain). You could track several different breedings that way, even if hatching from several at once, I'd think.

I gather in some countries colored chicks are considered a cool gift for children ... I gather they dye the whole chick by injecting the dye in the egg.

phew ... I just checked my original post. I wrote, "I could use different colors for different matings, or different places on the chick, depending." Not "dye the entire chick." Thought I'd lost my mind.

 

[Wisher1000]

Last year, I hatched some chicks from hens that were "pure" (white eggs) and some that came from 3/4 pullets (slightly tinted eggs) and a "pure" cock. As the chicks hatched, I put a drop of green food coloring on the "pure"
chicks head, neck, shoulder or whatever was showing before they even exited the egg. I used a cotton swab and dropped the food coloring on the tip when needed. It worked for a couple of weeks while the chicks were all in the brooder!

 

[MagicChicken]

Thank you, both, @neopolitancrazy & @MagicChicken .

I think next breeding season I *MIGHT* be in a position to have to hatch eggs from more than one breeding pen at a time. I'd vastly prefer to broody raise all the chicks (so far that's the only way I've raised the breeding birds), so was thinking if I wing band everyone ASAP, then I can slip incubator-hatched chicks under broody hens (if any are available) after.

So ... if wing banding a few days after hatch is more recommended, I still need a way to ID the fresh chicks.

We've noted with our line of Delawares that their toe webbing is tiny at hatch, so toe punching right out of the hatcher isn't an option.

What I could do is dye their fluff ... they are yellow so that would be easy enough, I could use different colors for different matings, or different places on the chick, depending ... then wing band when they're a tad older.

On a side note: I'd like to hatch earlier in the season this year, which will probably mean the earlier hatches would have to be hand raised because the broody "on switch" at this latitude seems to be about the second week of March for an April Fools Day hatch, not early enough IMO. I am NOT looking forward to hand-incubating and hand-raising chicks. Not at all.

This may sound dumb ... but I have vision problems, and I think I *MIGHT* be able to see wing bands better than leg bands because I can tuck the bird under my arm and stick my face right down into the bird's shoulder and take my time without the bird struggling as much as when I have to flip them over and hold their legs still. Right now, I need an assistant to deal with the zip ties. Part of my thing is that I totally lose track of something if it moves, and chickens move their legs a lot.

If you've got yellow chicks the food coloring/Sharpie marking techniques would probably work well. I toe punch because my chicks are mostly black. Sometimes I don't get a complete hole because the webbing is small. Now I just aim for a distinctive nick in the web if I can't get a full hole. I'd use the food coloring if I could

I wear progressive bifocals and the wing bands can be tricky to read on a grown bird. It's hard to hold the bird, fish the band out from under the wing feathers, and get the cursed thing at the correct position to have it in focus while still holding onto the bird. I do better without any glasses on at all. Even though they are a pain to read I still prefer wing bands to leg bands for permanent record keeping.