Keeping track of breeding with leg bands?

[doubleatraining]

Can someone walk me through the leg band/organization? I have all the chickens I'm going to have this year. Next year I will start breeding and my goal is a nice DP/Meat bird. I am guilty of not being very good at telling the difference in same breed birds. So would leg bands help me? Whats the best way to use them?

TIA.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It depends on your program and what you want to keep track of. There are a lot of different systems. And it depends on how many birds you have. Some of us use them to keep track of individual birds. Some just keep track of pens or families. You can use colors up to a point or you can use the numbered bands. Some also use toe punching or wing bands. Different systems.

I use colored bands, but I don't have a large amount of birds. The band on the left leg marks which hatch they are from and the bands on the right identify individual birds. With just three different colored bands, you can get a surprising amount of combinations. For example, a chicken with two oranges nearest the ground with one blue above them is a different bird than one that starts with one blue and ends with two oranges. This does not consider the yellow bands. You can repeat the band sequences if you have different breeds or colors.

 

[cybercat]

There are also colored numbered bands for legs. I use these one color for each new hatching. Numbers go from 1-100 and your buy them in packs of 25.

 

[doubleatraining]

Are leg bands something Tractor Supply carries?

What age do you start banding?

 

[Ksilva]

It depends on your program and what you want to keep track of. There are a lot of different systems. And it depends on how many birds you have. Some of us use them to keep track of individual birds. Some just keep track of pens or families. You can use colors up to a point or you can use the numbered bands. Some also use toe punching or wing bands. Different systems.

I use colored bands, but I don't have a large amount of birds. The band on the left leg marks which hatch they are from and the bands on the right identify individual birds. With just three different colored bands, you can get a surprising amount of combinations. For example, a chicken with two oranges nearest the ground with one blue above them is a different bird than one that starts with one blue and ends with two oranges. This does not consider the yellow bands. You can repeat the band sequences if you have different breeds or colors.

Thank you for the great instructions.