There are several reasons to band your bird. First of all, if you show, you must have your flock NPIP tested or have a 90 day cert on them to be able to show them. You are required to band every adult bird at that point so that will reflect that they have been tested. The most popular bands for bantams are the ABA bands that are permanent -- they are a solid ring and you put them on while the bird is growing and when they won't fall off. You can also use a thick spiral band that you pull apart and spirals back on the leg and those have numbers on them. They also come in diff colors so you could switch colors for each year, that way at a glance, you know that yellow was 2011, and blue was 2012. Before I ever band a bird, I use zip ties when they are chicks to identify parents. So all chicks with AB parents will be yellow... and chicks with parents CD will be red, and so on. Just whatever colors you decide to use and when you are filling out your records, you record numbers, colors, etc. Be careful with zipties-- they grow out of them quickly and you need to stay on top of it to clip them off and replace them (with the same color or move on to a permanent band). I have a local store called Valley Feed and Seed and they carry leg bands. So I have bought mine there, and of course, you can get them online. There are also the metal bands that must be put on with a tool. Here in Kansas, it is generally required that we use a metal band that is attached permanently. Depends on what your NPIP rules ask of the owners. You can still add an ABA band when they are growing, or the NPIP might just go ahead and use the ABA band to record with.
Mine have metal bands meaning they were npip tested.
