Looking for colored bands for the chickens legs - what do you use?

[rod5591]

Some of my 17 chickens are now able to fly over the 6 ft garden fence and have pretty much ruined my garden. I've decided to clip their wings, which means I am going to have to catch them over a week or so and do it.

At the same time I want to band them for identification purposes--I can recognize some individuals but not all.

Q- What is an inexpensive and effective band? rather than a number, I thought I would just use colors.

I have:
2 white chickens one is the cockeral and one a pullet, so no id bands needed
3 black pullets - id bands needed
5 checkered pullets - id bands needed
7 brown pullets- bands needed

I could use wire twist ties, but that seems they might unravel. I want something that will stay and not bother the bird.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

 

[Harmony Fowl]

I use spiral bands and I like them. They're not difficult to put on or remove. I only have them on my hens and haven't had any problems so far with them being too small. They come in bags with multiple colors on Amazon; it would be easy to pick and choose (one black hen with red, one with blue, etc) to identify the number of hens you have.

 

[sylviethecochin]

Many people use colored zipties, clipped close so that they won't snag and pull tight. I wouldn't know from personal experience--I know most of mine by sight.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I use colored zip ties. You might be able to find them at the electrical section at a big box store, not sure. I got mine online. I use the 7" and clip the excess length off. Don't get them too tight and go back and check them regularly. The legs will continue to grow.

My system is that the left leg color is for the year they hatched and the right leg is to identify individuals. Red on the left leg might be 2018. On the right leg I might use red for one individual, yellow for a second, and red plus yellow for the third. Then yellow plus green, green by itself, or just yellow.

Avoid black in birds with black legs, Yellow might be a challenge on yellow legged birds. Never use clear, I tried and it was a mistake. Just come up with your own system. And you are right, you can use the same colors on a red bird as you use on a black. I do.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

... I've decided to clip their wings, which means I am going to have to catch them... At the same time I want to band them for identification purposes...
Q- What is an inexpensive and effective band? rather than a number, I thought I would just use colors....

You should concentrate on the most effective type of identification band and that in my experience is the Jiffy Wing Band. I am not trying to start a big rigga-ma-roll but in the last 70 plus years I have seen almost every kind of ID form tried on chickens and most of them I tried myself. The jury is in and the only safe and effective ID band is a wing band. All plastic and zip ties used for identification purposes on a chickens' foot is just asking for the chicken to quickly outgrow the band, the band to dig into the shank, cut off circulation and cause your chicken or chickens to lose one of their feet. If you are unsure if numbered bands are right for you, Zip and Jiffy numbered wing bands also come in colors.

 

[aart]

I've decided to clip their wings, which means I am going to have to catch them over a week or so and do it.

Do they roost in a coop at night?
That's the easiest time to 'catch' them.

I use zipties too:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/leg-banding-with-zipties.68075/

 

[rod5591]

Yes they roost in 2 small coops, but the coops are small and the only way to get them would be by going in through the next boxes. I will give that a try !

 

[aart]

Yes they roost in 2 small coops, but the coops are small and the only way to get them would be by going in through the next boxes. I will give that a try !

Well, then, that may be difficult.
There's no access to coop for cleaning?
Best of cLuck!

 

[EggWalrus]

Well, then, that may be difficult.
There's no access to coop for cleaning?
Best of cLuck!

Sounds like one of those store bought coops. Yesterday at RK I saw some they were selling for $700 that I couldn't fit in. More like overpriced doll houses or fancy brooders.

 

[Silkie_Mom]

I really like the colored zip ties when I need to separate by color. Walmart has a pack of rainbow colors that are perfect for chickens, 25ish for $1.50.