Marking after vent sexing?

[rockethoe]

I want to separate my birds after hatching - male and female. I've been advised marking them is the best option. Is there a specific poultry marker? Or should I use food die? I want something fairly visible because the birds will be brown. (Slovenian brown, a line bred from rir).

We used to have marking pain for our sheep, but it comes in a big spray can so it's not exactly got the finesse needed to put a small spot on a chicks head.

 

[Sussex19]

I think you can get chick sized legs bands? Just throwing that out there.

 

[aart]

I used 4" zipties.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/leg-banding-with-zipties.68075/

 

[LaFleche]

I want to separate my birds after hatching - male and female. I've been advised marking them is the best option. Is there a specific poultry marker? Or should I use food die? I want something fairly visible because the birds will be brown. (Slovenian brown, a line bred from rir).

We used to have marking pain for our sheep, but it comes in a big spray can so it's not exactly got the finesse needed to put a small spot on a chicks head.

You can use chalk crayons, but I would rather mark their backs to avoid them head pecking each other. Needs to be reapplied several times.

Chick leg bands of different colours work well but will have to be replaced/changed rather often (~ every two weeks) as the chicks grow so fast and you want to avoid leg injuries caused by ingrowing leg bands.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I want to separate my birds after hatching - male and female. I've been advised marking them is the best option. Is there a specific poultry marker? Or should I use food die? I want something fairly visible because the birds will be brown. (Slovenian brown, a line bred from rir).

We used to have marking pain for our sheep, but it comes in a big spray can so it's not exactly got the finesse needed to put a small spot on a chicks head.

As I understand this you are just marking them to identify sex at a glance. With that breed you probably only need a couple of months which does take you through feathering out. That means you could need to renew it once if you use certain things.

Check out toe punching. That's where you punch a hole in the webbing between the toes. It has been used a long time and is permanent.

Food dye but you need to reapply it as they feather out and molt. Chicks go through a couple of juvenile molts so you need to pay attention and refresh as needed.

I've never used them but you can get wing bands that are permanent. Some breeders use those.

You can use leg bands or zip ties but you have to check those regularly as they grow or you can literally cut their feet off. Can you trust yourself to check regularly.

One time I marked a grown hen with spray paint. I needed something quick and had it handy. It did not seem to hurt her or the feathers, but it was a light spray, I did not soak the feathers. I even had a neighbor wonder what breed she was to have that one spot of baby blue feathers on a black hen.

Never done it but I don't know why a permanent marker wouldn't work.

Again never done it but I've seen posts on here where people use fingernail polish on their claws. I don't know how long that lasts.

 

[Alexandra Runner]

I used 4" zipties.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/leg-banding-with-zipties.68075/

That's what I use.

 

[Slothinc]

If just looking for something super simple, I would only mark one gender (either all the males or all the females) then you know the unmarked are one gender and the marked are the other. I would probably use zip ties and change them every couple of weeks. But even just a permanent marker stripe on the back would work.