leg bands? spiral, bandettes or snap on? does it matter?

[jasperito]

I've been researching leg bands for my chickens to see which kind would work best for my specific situation. I want to band just a couple of young roosters so I can easily identify them as they get older. The problem I'm having is knowing which kind would be best. I allow my chickens to free range and we live in the country (with a lot of underbrush, things I'm afraid they may get caught on) and I want to avoid putting something on them that could cause them to get hurt. Any suggestions? I'm thinking the snap ons would be best if they break open easily enough if one was to get caught on something but I'm not sure.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I've been researching leg bands for my chickens to see which kind would work best for my specific situation. I want to band just a couple of young roosters so I can easily identify them as they get older. The problem I'm having is knowing which kind would be best. I allow my chickens to free range and we live in the country (with a lot of underbrush, things I'm afraid they may get caught on) and I want to avoid putting something on them that could cause them to get hurt. Any suggestions? I'm thinking the snap ons would be best if they break open easily enough if one was to get caught on something but I'm not sure.

I've never (to my knowledge) had a leg or wing band get tangled. Now long do you want to band or mark these two birds? You may want to reserch nose marking as a way to mark your birds. It is free, perminant, and there is no danger of entanlement. Otherwise look into colored plastic spiral bands but care must be taken to keep changing to ever larger bands as the old ones get too tight.

 

[Folly's place]

I use the numbered colored plastic leg bands, with fair success. They do come off, and the bird needs a new band then. ONCE I had a rooster's leg band move up over his hock, which caused a nasty pressure injury. He lost skin, and had surgery to clean up the wound, antibiotics, and some healing time. I'm very careful to watch the birds for any issues, and have never had another injury like that. Getting the right size band is really important, and changing them out if you start with young growing birds. Some people use colored zip ties, very inexpensive, but no numbers. Mary

 

[yellowchicks]

Thin color zip ties work really well if you don't have that many chickens, since color choices can be limited. Just trim off the end, and remember to switch out to a new one to adjust in size as the chickens grow bigger. Our chickens are named Yellow, Orange, Green and Blue.