Author Topic: Leg Bands vs. Wing Bands  (Read 37299 times)

Beth C

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Leg Bands vs. Wing Bands
« on: March 21, 2011, 01:54:29 PM »
I apologize if this has already been covered - if it has, just point me toward that thread. But I did a search and got the Bing.com commercial. ;) Most people seem to use leg bands, and that\'s what I\'ve been using, but I\'m thinking of switching over to wing bands. They seem more practical, since you don\'t have to keep changing them as the bird grows & wouldn\'t be as apt to snag on things. But there has to be a reason why I see a lot more legs bands on birds than wing bands, so I wanted to get some feedback from you guys as to which you prefer and why.

Cloverleaf Farm

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Leg Bands vs. Wing Bands
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2011, 02:49:38 PM »
I use leg bands because I don\'t have to pick up the bird, find the band, and move feathers to see the number.  I use the spiral numbered bandettes, because they \"grow\" with the bird.  I use size 7 for all of my bantams, 9s for LF girls and 11s for LF boys. ;)

Beth C

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Leg Bands vs. Wing Bands
« Reply #2 on: March 21, 2011, 04:55:41 PM »
Good point - the bandettes have huge numbers that are visible from a good distance, too. That\'s what I\'ve been using, but #9 and sometimes even #7 won\'t stay on chicks, so I have to start w/colored zip ties, then go to #7, then #9/#11. But that visibility is going to be hard to give up... :(

Cloverleaf Farm

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Leg Bands vs. Wing Bands
« Reply #3 on: March 22, 2011, 05:55:45 AM »
Quote from: Beth C
Good point - the bandettes have huge numbers that are visible from a good distance, too. That\'s what I\'ve been using, but #9 and sometimes even #7 won\'t stay on chicks, so I have to start w/colored zip ties, then go to #7, then #9/#11. But that visibility is going to be hard to give up... :(


Yep, I use colored zip ties on chicks too.  Anything else just makes me too nervous with their twiggy little legs...

cedarpondfarm

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Leg Bands vs. Wing Bands
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2011, 07:20:39 PM »
One thing I never thought about with legbands . . . .

I have a large community hen house when I am not hatching - the birds are shut up at night and range during the day.  A few months ago, a week before I intended to seperate the birds into breeding pens, three dogs broke into my chicken house.  They killed about half my flock of 80 blacks and blues.  During the melee, legbands came off most of the surviving (and well battered)birds.  Now I am not sure who is who.  My careful records are of little use without the legbands.  Didn\'t hatch any chicks this spring but will start again in December.  From now on I will use the toe punch.  

Beth C

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Leg Bands vs. Wing Bands
« Reply #5 on: March 30, 2011, 08:03:21 PM »
Quote
three dogs broke into my chicken house. They killed about half my flock of 80 blacks and blues. During the melee, legbands came off most of the surviving (and well battered)birds. Now I am not sure who is who.


I am so sorry - such a shame to have so much of your hard work destroyed like that!

That\'s the reason I was leaning toward wing bands - I\'ve had so many bandettes break or come off that record keeping has been hit or miss at best. I\'ll probably still use them for easy identification, but I think I need something sturdier for permanent ID.

faith valley

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Leg Bands vs. Wing Bands
« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2011, 10:19:58 PM »
I personally dont like the wing bands.  We have wing bands on the large fowl leghorns that we use for the judging team kids. Those wing bands get snagged on everything. I just hate that type of band.

We use the colored numbered metal leg bands. We just change to a different color each year year- wonderful for knowing how old a bird it at a glance.  I dont like the plastic numbered bands because after a few winters, they break and actually shrink and become tight on the bird\'s leg.  Of course ameraucanas dont spend much time in swimming water so they might not shrink on an ameraucana leg. LOL

Patty

Beth C

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Leg Bands vs. Wing Bands
« Reply #7 on: March 31, 2011, 12:45:36 PM »
Ah, that\'s what I needed to know! If they snag as bad or worse than leg bands, then I don\'t want them.

Oh, and my Ameraucanas don\'t swim, but given the rainfall we get here, they may as well be waterfowl! :p

HarryS

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Leg Bands vs. Wing Bands
« Reply #8 on: March 31, 2011, 05:56:27 PM »
Well I toe punch but the state gives bands when you test them which generally fall off.  I am looking for a tatoo kit to tatoo them permanently with their state ID;s.  
Harry Shaffer

Beth C

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Leg Bands vs. Wing Bands
« Reply #9 on: April 02, 2011, 10:45:23 AM »
Harry, you read my mind! I was just staring at my tattoo kit and wondering if it would work. It\'s the one I have for my goats, but it\'s the small animal size - we tattoo Lamanchas in the tail web, since they don\'t have ears. Would you tattoo chickens on the underside of the wing, in the web?

Also, I did some searching around but can\'t seem to find any info about tattoos & showing. Are tattoos accepted at shows, do they still require bands, and, if so, do the numbers have to match the tattoos (one site made reference to this in the UK)?

I\'m going by the NPIP bands at the moment, but have to come up with another plan by fall because here they cut the previous year\'s bands off and replace them. Seems like such a waste, and extra work, but I guess they find it easier to re-band w/consecutive numbers than record each individual number.

Beth C

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Leg Bands vs. Wing Bands
« Reply #10 on: January 29, 2012, 11:30:01 AM »
I\'m bumping this back up, because I have yet to find a form of ID I like for growing birds.

Toe-punching will identify a group of birds (pen 1, pen 2) but not individual birds.

I like the butt-end aluminum bands on adults, but they can\'t be applied until the bird is nearly grown.

The NPIP bands break if you look at them - mine were done last month and at least 1/4 have already come off. Plus I test in the fall, so by that point they\'re old enough for permanent bands anyway.

Bandettes break or pull off, and last year the numbers rubbed off of ALL of them in just a few months.

Zip ties work for small hatches but with large numbers it\'s too easy to miss one and have it grow into the leg - not pretty.

Last year I spent a lot of time tattooing, thinking that would solve the problem once and for all, but over time some of the tattoos became unreadable. (Maybe the pen type tattoo kit would work better than the pliers?)

At the moment I\'m writing numbers on the wing-web with a sharpie, but that doesn\'t seem practical for very long.

That brings me to once again considering wing bands, since they can be applied to day-old chicks and supposedly stay on for life. Patty, you mentioned you had a problem with snagging - just wanted to clarify, were those wing bands or wing badges? The badges look really cumbersome, but the bands stick out, too. Has anyone else used wing bands? Do they stay on; do they break; do they get pulled out?

Any other suggestions on how to permanently ID a growing bird? (Or at least last long enough to get a butt-end band on it.)

dak

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Leg Bands vs. Wing Bands
« Reply #11 on: January 29, 2012, 10:44:22 PM »
I toe punch at hatch.  Especially those Lav/SB splits I don\'t want to lose track of.

My bandettes have come of at an alarming rate, hate\'em.

I have been using wingbands on my LF Cochins without any issues, though it is a hassle to pick up a bird to identify it.  I am considering it with my Ameraucanas and then using the colored spiral band for easy distance ID.  

I like using the same color spiral as the color food color I put in the pullet\'s vent to mark her egg when I\'m trying to figure out who is laying what.  ie. green band, green food color.

Beth C

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Leg Bands vs. Wing Bands
« Reply #12 on: January 30, 2012, 10:19:20 AM »
Do they stay on pretty well? I loathe the bandettes, although I may continue to use them as a secondary form of ID. I really like the butt-end bands, but by the time they\'re old enough to wear them half the birds have lost their identity along the way.

I toe punch to identify offspring from a specific breeding, but I\'d like to be able to track an individual as it grows. Michael had suggested photographing chicks, wheatens in particular, weekly as they grow. He said that, w/in a line, you start to see the same pattern repeat. I tried last year, but by the time they were 3 months old the numbers had rubbed off the crummy bandettes, at least the ones that stayed on.

Do you use the food color with your Ameraucanas? I tried last year, but it didn\'t show up. Do you use regular food color or the paste type they use for icing? That would make my life easier. I don\'t have enough breeding cages to keep everyone separate, so I have a group of hens in a run with one cock, and rotate them in & out of cages to collect & mark eggs. Which means I can only ID half my eggs on any given day.

Sharon Yorks

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Leg Bands vs. Wing Bands
« Reply #13 on: January 30, 2012, 08:44:50 PM »
I\'m not sure if anyone else uses these, but here is a link to an ad on Ebay that is for little colored rubber bands. I use size 4 for when they first hatch, then I switch to size 5 when they are 10-14 days old. I really like them. It\'s just a temporary method for when they are real young. I am planning to get bigger sizes to see how well it works as they get bigger. Just another idea to ponder that is softer and more flexible than zip ties. All 6 colors come in one bag. They sell 100 bands for $7 no shipping. And you can reuse them. They stretch easy when trying to put them on and take them off.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-LEG-BANDS-CHICK-POULTRY-BIRD-QUAIL-EGG-SMALL-SIZE-5-/320365726791?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4a97490c47  
Sharon Yorks
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HarryS

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Leg Bands vs. Wing Bands
« Reply #14 on: January 30, 2012, 08:49:56 PM »
Well to set your mind at ease.  The aluminum wing bands stay on the best.  Even when the chickens are ran thru the pickers at the slaughter plants very few are pulled off,  they have to be cut off the wing to remove them.  
Harry Shaffer