Leg bands???

[Yard full o' rocks]

I currently have 8 Buff Orp hens and one rooster. As a "chicken novice" I really feel like "Octomom" with 8 kids who all look pretty much the same. I have read somewhere about colored "leg bands??" to use to identify your chickens....I think? I would love to be able to name all my girls....but right now I may as well use one name for ALL of them. Any suggestions??

Thanks

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

We use colored plastic zip ties to mark our birds - TSC, Walmart, Lowes all carry them in red, green, blue, red, orange and one more I think, plus there are clear and black. We use the colors to mark breed and then right leg 2009, left 2010, both 2011 etc etc to mark the age.

They do have one major down side! If you put them on growing birds you must keep an eye on the band as they don't expand. Some people say they have to be changed to much on growing birds - you can put them on alot looser than you think to allow for growth.

Steve in NC

 

[Leah-yes I know I'm crazy]

There are a lot of other good reasons to use the bands in addition to naming. I put one on a hen that went broody over the winter but failed to hatch anything. She just went broody again and I know it would not be a good idea to spend a lot of money on valuable eggs for her to sit on because she has not been able to hatch anything yet. Now if she hatches something this time and becomes a very good chicken mamma she'll get a GOLD leg band.

 

[cinder_ella]

omg! I love the idea of leg bands, even if I don't need them since only *planning* on having 5-10 chickens at the most, it sounds so cute I wanna put bands on their legs (like a chicken anklet!), like maybe those ajustable toe rings? That would be adorable!

Is this a bad idea?

 

[illinichick]

I plan on using them to "weed" out my nonlayers. When school's out, I'm going to start putting one hen in a dog crate to see if she's laying. I'll use one color for those who are laying and one for nonlayers. when I've gone through the whole flock (23), I'll butcher the nonlayers. they are one to two years old and only half of them are laying. I'm getting tired of feeding nonproductive hens. I have 25 topHats in the brooder and 5 silkies in a small pen. Need to make room.

 

[PunkinPeep]

i have the same problem with my buff orps. except for their personality traits, it's impossible to tell which is which.

i put zip ties on them a few days ago and have since started noticing a lot more of their differing personality traits that weren't obvious before. i'm also hoping to name more of them. it will also be easier to check up on certain ones if i'm concerned about something.

i didn't have access to the pre-colored zip ties, so i colored them with permanent marker. i had to put stripes on a couple of them - since blue and purple and red and orange look almost the same if you're not really close. we put them on pretty loose to give them room to grow, and none of them have lost them. i'm really glad we did it.

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

Quote:
Thanks...I got some multi-colored flourescent ones at TSC today. Gonna try to put them on tonite and name them. Try to use a name that has the same first letter as the color of their band...so an old man like me can remember them!!!

 

[Mahlzeit]

The leg bands are cheap and easy to buy too. And you dont have to worry about zipping them too tight.

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

Quote:
Can you tell me where I might find them?? Are they colored?

 

[animal nut]

You can go to Smith's Poultry Supplies.com
They carry a variety of leg bands in different color and you can get them with number. We purchase these because our comets all look alike, and we wanted to keep track of any sick or injuried chicks.