Its very difficult to find the right leg bands for banties In Arkansas they must have a sealed metal band, so you can't use those nice little plastic spirals, even if they are numbered. So in my case, I have had to go to wing clips for the banties, which is the alternative to the leg banding. I found the bleeders to be semi useless after a few birds and pulled out a hypodermic needle to use. Much easier and much less pain for the birds. I am an RN (30 years) and in all fairness, as you say, some chickens have the worst rolling veins I've ever encountered. The sharper needle also helped this. This was also suggested to us by the state guy who taught us the class. In class we all got to stick one bird, leghorn hens, very easy with big wing veins. When I started looking at my birds, I practically had their underwing plucked bald looking for a vein.
