The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[AletaG]

AletaG,
Toe punching is the easiest most permanent way to mark your chicks. I do it as I pull them from the hatcher.
It really is not that bad, for you or the chick. The toe punch tool works well and quickly. As soon as you show the chicks water and food, they have no thought of the toe punch.
If you can't make yourself toe punch you also won't be able to make yourself wing band, which is a much bigger hole.
Ron

Thanks Ron. Guess my biggest problem is ROI. If I've got 25 chicks, and I toe punch them, it's just for 'who's the mom.dad' right? Whereas a wing band marks an individual, and in the notebook you can write down who mom/dad/hatch etc.... do any of you guys have/know links to short videos on each method? I learn best by doing, for stuff like this, and second best is watching it happen. I am having the devil of a time understanding the pros/cons of each method, let alone the how. Like the wing-banding, sounds like that can happen as early as a week... does it grow with the bird or is it like leg bands where you have to re-band as they grow? People seem to have very strong opinions on every method, so there's the emotional haze to get through... It's hard to make a practical decision so far. Which is why at the moment, going to go with the multiple colors of vet wrap (Cheap n easy, grows w the bird, easy to remove, hard for a bird to undo itself). I might change my mind by the time my first hatch happens... We'll see!

 

[immyjay54]

Oh my gosh, I am one of the most whimpy guys in the world when it comes to this kind of thing. There is no way that I will ever use anything on my little ones except bands, zip ties or vet wrap. I would rather have to change them every couple of weeks then punch holes in their toes. Gives me the willies just thinking about it. I am so nervous I would probably take off a toe. ha,ha,ha. Seriously, the only birds on my place that are toe punched are the ones from Gary and he did them. Besides, if they are walking around I can see band color a lot easier then try to see toe punching. I band different colors, different leg (left or right) sometimes bands of different color on each leg. My breeder males have numbered bandettes but I don't keep lots of males. Gosh, I might have to start taking them and getting their ear lobes pierced and put ear rings in there but I still will not do toe punch. Oh gosh, I got to quit talking about this, it makes my liver quiver. lol
Jim

 

[MumsyII]

I'm ordering a toe punch this winter in anticipation for my next years hatch. I use numbered bandettes on breeders. No need to look up who is who with parentage. The number and color goes in a book and that's that. I also have permanent aluminum numbered bands but lost the applicator pliers. Got to put that on my list too.
You can't show a bird with vet wrap on it's leg as identification. There are just so many colors of that. I have used it on chicks and had it tighten and cut off circulation to a chicks foot. I won't use it any more.

A toe punch day of hatch and no worries for me. I use to breed Springer Spaniels and docked pups tails myself. Taking off a puppies tail is no harder for me than punching a hole in a chicks foot. Don't even get me going on castration of calves and colts on the farm. Stuff happens on farms. Raising chickens is farming. I would think processing chickens for the table would be more difficult for some than toe punching. That's just my take on it.

 

[immyjay54]

I'm ordering a toe punch this winter in anticipation for my next years hatch. I use numbered bandettes on breeders. No need to look up who is who with parentage. The number and color goes in a book and that's that. I also have permanent aluminum numbered bands but lost the applicator pliers. Got to put that on my list too.
You can't show a bird with vet wrap on it's leg as identification. There are just so many colors of that. I have used it on chicks and had it tighten and cut off circulation to a chicks foot. I won't use it any more.

A toe punch day of hatch and no worries for me. I use to breed Springer Spaniels and docked pups tails myself. Taking off a puppies tail is no harder for me than punching a hole in a chicks foot. Don't even get me going on castration of calves and colts on the farm. Stuff happens on farms. Raising chickens is farming. I would think processing chickens for the table would be more difficult for some than toe punching. That's just my take on it.

lol I can chop of the heads and think nothing of it. It is just the baby thing with me. lol I was born, raised on a farm and helped butcher many cows, pigs etc but they weren't babies. lol Just my take on it. Old softy.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

AletaG,
Toe punching is the easiest most permanent way to mark your chicks. I do it as I pull them from the hatcher.
It really is not that bad, for you or the chick. The toe punch tool works well and quickly. As soon as you show the chicks water and food, they have no thought of the toe punch.
If you can't make yourself toe punch you also won't be able to make yourself wing band, which is a much bigger hole.
Ron

When you toe punch, what are you marking? Is it a way to keep track of who the parents were or is it more of a hatch date kind of thing. I'm thinking you hatch enough chicks that it is not a way to identify one chick from another entirely like the colored number bands I'm using so I know who is who and the kids can name them. In case you are wondering my children have named the 2 biggest HRIR roosters King Friday and Prince Tuesday.

 

[dvoice]

How interesting... do you have any pics from the parental line? The owners were emarassed because most of them are molting.

Here's a few pics of the breed stock

 

[catdaddyfro]

Here's a few pics of the breed stock

Originally Posted by dvoice

I'm planning on heading to the person's place in a cpl days to get pics and see if he got any paperwork for the birds. They came from Pacific Agri-Food research facility. According to the guy I got the eggs from They have genetics going back 60 yrs.Assoon as I get some pics I'll post them plus any chicks( had a hard time with a heater malfuntioning at the beginning then frying the heater outlets on my controller.)

With them being from a food research facility and from the looks of the light color and non-uniformity of them + the big leghorn type combs they are more than likely production type more so than "heritage" Standard bred RIRs

Jeff

 

[BGMatt]

lol I can chop of the heads and think nothing of it. It is just the baby thing with me. lol I was born, raised on a farm and helped butcher many cows, pigs etc but they weren't babies. lol Just my take on it. Old softy.

You're like the inverse of me. I can toe punch, wingband (although I don't like them for other reasons), and dub no problems. I can't kill birds (all my culls go to slaughterhouse for butcher).

 

[immyjay54]

You're like the inverse of me. I can toe punch, wingband (although I don't like them for other reasons), and dub no problems. I can't kill birds (all my culls go to slaughterhouse for butcher).

Strange how some things bother some of us and other things bother others. lol I really think I can accept the butchering to eat better because I know that they were put here for food for us. The other things toe punching etc is just something that man came up with. lol I have no problems with my way of keeping records. As for showing, I do not and never expect to get into that headache. I showed animals for 30+ years and will never get into that again, especially with chickens. I showed horses and won enough to pay for everything and still a little left over. My show days are over and don't even think about it.

 

[BGMatt]

Strange how some things bother some of us and other things bother others. lol I really think I can accept the butchering to eat better because I know that they were put here for food for us. The other things toe punching etc is just something that man came up with. lol I have no problems with my way of keeping records. As for showing, I do not and never expect to get into that headache. I showed animals for 30+ years and will never get into that again, especially with chickens. I showed horses and won enough to pay for everything and still a little left over. My show days are over and don't even think about it.

It really is interesting. For the record, I've switched to colored leg bands because it's easier to see than toe punches. I must be getting lazy in my old age. First 3 weeks they're in separate brooders (I never do more than 4 matings at once and have 4 smallish brooders) after hatching in one of four hatching trays in incubator of course, they they get colors, then numbered bandettes. Before this I used marker pen on legs because it was easier to see, then i realised it was easier to just keep them separate physically until old enough to put some sort of band on. LOL

Also just realized what thread this is and I don't even have Rhode Island Reds...but dang y'all make them so tempting.

I really look forward to the shows, probably because I've shown other animals and greatly prefer the relaxed atmosphere of the poultry shows while still getting to compete. Don't know if I'll ever enter a dog again, too much hassle and headache. There's definitely all kinds.