Want to band my chickens... Need stores that sell them

[aurorarose25]

I am looking into banding my birds, but don't know how many colors for each bird and so on. I kinda liked the bandettes idea. But can't really find a place that sells them numbered and non numbered. Can someone help me.

Has anyone tried the metal bands? whats your take on them? Should I only invest in the larger size for when they get older or get a smaller size too?

Thnx

 

[Judy]

I did a search for leg bands in Managing Your Flock using topic subject only, and got 3 pages of threads. Zip ties are the simple, inexpensive, local solution. Here's one informative thread:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=297564&p=2

 

[RedRoosterFarm]

I bought every band there was and used them for about 3 months. Metal,plastic numbered and spirial. It got to the point where I just stopped cause it was a pain in the butt. For showing its great but at home on the farm it seems I knew every chicken there was. Its almost impossible to band chicks and then when you do you have to remember to pull the bands when they grow or you will loose a foot. Cutlers supply(1 810 633 9450) was the best prices and they charge the honest shipping not 10.00 for 1.00 worth of stuff. What kind of bird or what size are you banding?
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[sunny & the 5 egg layers]

I put velcro strips on my chickens. I bought them at the craft store. They work great!

 

[RedRoosterFarm]

OMG, Thats a great idea and come off easy when you want them off. Do they stay and not fall off?

sunny & the 5 egg layers :

I put velcro strips on my chickens. I bought them at the craft store. They work great!​

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've used zip ties and they work. I also got some colored bands from Cutler Supply. They work too. I have not tried the metal bands.

Cutler Supply has a chart that tells you what size to buy. That is just for the hens. You need a larger size for roosters of the same breeds.

Yiou can get a surprising number of unique identifications with just a few colors. You have two legs to work with and you can put different bands on the same leg. You need to look at the color of your chickens' legs too. Yellow might be hard to see on certain breeds. Dark blue does not show up real well on a dark-legged bird. You can see them, but you have to look a little harder.

Just some of the options you can have with just two colors. One the left leg, put:

Bare or none
Yellow
Blue
Blue and Yellow
Two Blues
Two Yellows
Two Blues and one Yellow
Two Yellows and one Blue.
Blue, then Yellow, then Blue
Yellow, then Blue, then Yellow.

Imagine how this could expand with just one more color.

For each treatment of the left leg, you can do all these on the right leg. If you have different colors or breeds of chickens, yoou can do one for white chickens, one for red, and one for black. It is real easy to tell an Australorp with a yellow onthe left leg from a Delaware marked the same way.

For me, all mine that hatched last year that I kept all wear orange on their left leg. I use the right leg to tell them apart.

 

[sunny & the 5 egg layers]

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Yes, they stay on. They are on my 11 week olds and have been on them for a while and I havent had any problem. I highly recommend them.

 

[aurorarose25]

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I am doing LF cochins, Ameracaunas, orpingtons. But there are many color variations in each breed.

 

[aurorarose25]

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Thanks for the info that will help out a lot..

 

[tripletmumm]

I bought plastic bands for a while. Had to purchase their entire stock of mixed colors because they didn't have enough of one color for my flock. The following batch, I ended up buying colored zip ties. That way I got LOTS of one color and they were easy to adjust to make sure they were the right size. They were easier to get on my chicks too than the bands. Plus, when parts in my fence became bad (thanks to our dog) I was able to use the extra zip ties to fix the fence. LOL