Knowing who's who

[Red jungle fowl88]

I'm going to be setting eggs hopefully saterday.... But I have question I'm going to be setting eggs from three different hens ones a Albany on and one a kelso and a mix game bird... Now the eggs are marked but my concern is what can I do whene they are born so I can know what breed each is... Can I mark thier feet? Seperate them? Or any ideas?

 

[Ms.FuzzyButts]

Some folks use colored zip ties around their legs. I have not done it yet, but will the next go around.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm not familiar with those lines of game fowl but I'd guess your mixed breed would kind of mess up any chance of being able to tell them apart by the chicks appearance anyway. Once they hatch and dry, they will start moving around and get mixed up anyway.

When you go into lockdown, you can put wire fences or something like that to separate the eggs and make sure the chicks do not intermingle. Maybe put one of those little plastic or wire baskets over the eggs, properly marked of course. You won't have the turner running the last three day anyway, so you can probably come up with something.

When the hatch is over, you can temporarily mark them with a magic marker or food dye to tell them apart for a little while. I'd stay away from red since they seem to like to peck red things but there are plenty of other colors. I'll give you a link that talks about leg bands and toe punching, but I'd use a magic marker or food dye for the first couple of weeks. Just put one color on the down on top of the head for one group and a different color on the back or side for another. I'm sure you can come up with a system.

Leg bands and toe punching
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=126202

 

[Red jungle fowl88]

I was thinking about the leg bands but I'm not sure how soon after they are born I could touch them?

 

[Ms.FuzzyButts]

Just as soon as you want to! Usually as soon as they are dry.