marking bloodlines at hatching

[WalkingWolf]

I have three different bloodlines of the same breed hatching on the 23rd. What is a good way to tell them apart. I do not want to inject anything into the shell to afraid I might stick the chick or break the egg. They are all BB Red gamefowl so they all should look like chipmunks. I think they would be hard to dye after hatching. I thought maybe small tie-wraps on the legs if it would not hinder their movement, or try a non toxic black marker on a brown area of the chick.

 

[wegotchickens]

Someone on here suggested buying colored velcro strips and putting them on the birds. Easy for you to remove, won't hurt the bird, and reusable.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

I use the colored velcro strips. You can get a 4 pack of different colors at walmart in the craft section. I take a piece of hardware cloth 1/4" and run it down the incubator, put the eggs from 1 bloodline on 1 side and the other line on the other side. Then after all are hatched. I mark one blood line in one color and the other in a different color. Make sure that you cut the velcro bands thin and wrap it around the leg 2 or 3 times. That way, you can adjust as the get bigger, until you can put regular bands on. I have some velcro strips on some silkies, and they have been on for about 5 months.

 

[DTchickens]

mark each egg with a pencil or magic marker (sharpie) and write say.. "L1 (line 1)" "L2" etc... separate eggs into different trays.. when they hatch you know whats what. and then you can use the toe punch method...what my dad did and all came out well. except he didn't use punches... he just cut the webs in between they're toes.. doesn't hurt em... and you can mark 15 different ways like this.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Quote:
I dont understand how to toe puch a chicken, they really dont have any web. I want to do it with my silkies or oegb but I have no clue. lol

 

[halo]

Velcro strips are a great idea.

 

[B. Saffles Farms]

Quote:
I dont understand how to toe puch a chicken, they really dont have any web. I want to do it with my silkies or oegb but I have no clue. lol

Here is a chart, maybe this will help you.
http://www.albc-usa.org/documents/ToePunchChart.pdf

 

[DTchickens]

Quote:
I dont understand how to toe puch a chicken, they really dont have any web. I want to do it with my silkies or oegb but I have no clue. lol

Call me lazy, but i took a picture of the image in the OEGBCA yearbook

description- "there are sixteen different possibilities of toe punch idenification using the chart above. each bird's left foot outside web has a value of one, left foot inside web has a value of two, right food inside web has a value of four, and right foot outside web has a value of eight. using this method or the chart provided, all one needs to do is mate your birds up and assign each mating a "pen number" for with this "pen number" and upon hatcining, toe punch a combination of webs that will add up to your assigned "pen number" example:Let's say you have a pen that you have named pen #13. this would require you to toe punch the left foot outside web (1), right foot inside web (4) and right foot outside web (8) for a total of (1+4+8=13) thirteen. " Its simple. we would take a knife.. or some little nose hair scissors and just cut the web. L1 be... left in, L2... right in... L3... right out or something like that. punches are holes in the webs.. usually there by stabbing them. but have also noticed they can sometimes tear if not done right.. so we just used "Slices" easier.

 

[WalkingWolf]

Thanks, the velcro sounds like the best plan. I already have the eggs marked and separated in the bator.

 

[hinkjc]

Do you have a way to hatch them separately as well? This is going to be the most important first step in identifying who is who.