Leg bands for ID

[Rachnwoody]

Does anyone use keg bands on their peacocks?
If so:
Do you start with little bands for the chicks and then replace with larger ones as they grow?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I don't have peacocks but I do have a lot of experience with legbands.
I've used several kinds. My favorites were the colored numbered bandettes. The reason I used those was to have a color for each year and numbers to identify individuals hatched that year. I used the same color code as used for identifying honey bee queens and from afar, I was able to know the age of a bird.
I've used the plastic rings but avoided the metal ones because it would be harder to remove them. The advantage of metal is that they don't come off, which is the disadvantage of the bandettes. I don't know how they do it but they tend to lose them frequently. I resorted to having two on each bird, one on each leg. Sometimes I would still end up with no identification on a bird. By process of elimination, you could tell what bird it was and replace them.
In the end, I finally went with metal wing bands. The bird needs to be handled to identify it but the advantage is they can go on at a few days of age and they stay on for life.
To answer your primary question, I found it better to use zip ties till they matured enough to use (semi)permanent leg bands.
With zip ties, there are all sorts of combinations you can use to identify individuals by use of left, right or both legs, multiple ties and colored zip ties. They are cheap and you can keep changing them as necessary. The main issue with them is that they are not forgiving at all so it is necessary to do your due diligence to make sure they don't get tight.
Bandettes get too tight too but just not as badly as zip ties.

 

[Debbie292d]

I don't have peacocks but I do have a lot of experience with legbands.
I've used several kinds. My favorites were the colored numbered bandettes. The reason I used those was to have a color for each year and numbers to identify individuals hatched that year. I used the same color code as used for identifying honey bee queens and from afar, I was able to know the age of a bird.
I've used the plastic rings but avoided the metal ones because it would be harder to remove them. The advantage of metal is that they don't come off, which is the disadvantage of the bandettes. I don't know how they do it but they tend to lose them frequently. I resorted to having two on each bird, one on each leg. Sometimes I would still end up with no identification on a bird. By process of elimination, you could tell what bird it was and replace them.
In the end, I finally went with metal wing bands. The bird needs to be handled to identify it but the advantage is they can go on at a few days of age and they stay on for life.
To answer your primary question, I found it better to use zip ties till they matured enough to use (semi)permanent leg bands.
With zip ties, there are all sorts of combinations you can use to identify individuals by use of left, right or both legs, multiple ties and colored zip ties. They are cheap and you can keep changing them as necessary. The main issue with them is that they are not forgiving at all so it is necessary to do your due diligence to make sure they don't get tight.
Bandettes get too tight too but just not as badly as zip ties.

Thank you for the explanation as I am getting a dozen buff silkie hatching eggs in January and want to have a few DNA tested so I can keep a roo and two hens and sell the rest. I was wondering how to mark these ones I would keep prior to selling the others without separating them.

There are a plethora of threads on BYC I read but none explain the different types and advantages/disadvantages of each. You should consider doing an article on leg bands!!

 

[NatJ]

Thank you for the explanation as I am getting a dozen buff silkie hatching eggs in January and want to have a few DNA tested so I can keep a roo and two hens and sell the rest. I was wondering how to mark these ones I would keep prior to selling the others without separating them.

How long will you need to keep track of them? If it is just for a week or two, you can put ink or food coloring on them (a bit of color on the head or back will show up quite nicely on buff chickens.) Marking with ink or food coloring becomes a nuisance if you try to do it for very long, because you have to re-do it every time they get new feathers.

 

[Debbie292d]

How long will you need to keep track of them? If it is just for a week or two, you can put ink or food coloring on them (a bit of color on the head or back will show up quite nicely on buff chickens.) Marking with ink or food coloring becomes a nuisance if you try to do it for very long, because you have to re-do it every time they get new feathers.

That is a great idea too! Thanks!

In thinking about this though, if the DNA results come back on say five chicks, there will be at least two of those I'm not keeping. I suppose I could just wait a few days for it to wear off via feather growth though. I don't sell hatched chicks younger than a week old anyway.

 

[NatJ]

That is a great idea too! Thanks!

In thinking about this though, if the DNA results come back on say five chicks, there will be at least two of those I'm not keeping. I suppose I could just wait a few days for it to wear off via feather growth though. I don't sell hatched chicks younger than a week old anyway.

Or you could sell them with the coloring on, because you would probably want to tell the buyer which chick is male or female anyway ("the one with red on the head is a male, and the one with green on the back is a female, but the color will disappear when they grow more feathers." Or whatever color/location applies to the chicks in question.)

 

[KsKingBee]

We use both wing tags and two different types of leg bands. When the chick hatches we apply a colored zip tie that corresponds to the pen the egg came from, that band will have to be changed out in five or six weeks. At one week of age, we wing tag both wings with identical tags and record the bird in the yearly register. The colored zips will have to be changed two or more times before they are four months old. When we are going to keep a bird for breeding we will apply a closed-butt metal band. Both our wing tags and leg bands carry our name and phone number as well as the ID number. Both tags and bands can be ordered from https://www.nationalband.com/

 

[Rachnwoody]

I don't have peacocks but I do have a lot of experience with legbands.
I've used several kinds. My favorites were the colored numbered bandettes. The reason I used those was to have a color for each year and numbers to identify individuals hatched that year. I used the same color code as used for identifying honey bee queens and from afar, I was able to know the age of a bird.
I've used the plastic rings but avoided the metal ones because it would be harder to remove them. The advantage of metal is that they don't come off, which is the disadvantage of the bandettes. I don't know how they do it but they tend to lose them frequently. I resorted to having two on each bird, one on each leg. Sometimes I would still end up with no identification on a bird. By process of elimination, you could tell what bird it was and replace them.
In the end, I finally went with metal wing bands. The bird needs to be handled to identify it but the advantage is they can go on at a few days of age and they stay on for life.
To answer your primary question, I found it better to use zip ties till they matured enough to use (semi)permanent leg bands.
With zip ties, there are all sorts of combinations you can use to identify individuals by use of left, right or both legs, multiple ties and colored zip ties. They are cheap and you can keep changing them as necessary. The main issue with them is that they are not forgiving at all so it is necessary to do your due diligence to make sure they don't get tight.
Bandettes get too tight too but just not as badly as zip ties.

Thank you so much, this was the perfect explanation.

 

[Midnightman14]

I use leg bands for family trees in my mutations. In my Greens I ONLY use world pheasant association closed bands as they are stud book birds.