The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club > Breeding

Tracking chicks?

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KalJen Farm:
Thanks for al the info everyone. This will definatly help. now to dig that incubatorr out. :)

Tailfeathers:
I use toe-punching and have no problems with it.  I prefer it over other methods.  If you do a search on the Forum for "toe punching", you should find a post that Paul Smith has made a couple of times that detail exactly how to go about it.

Suffice it for now to say that you first have to decide what your breeding plan will consist of.  For example, my breeding plans consist of a specific male over specific female(s).  The male would have a specific # and the female(s) would have a specific # but different that the male's to prevent brother/sister mating.  Here's a quick example:

PEN #2
#11 Wheaten Rooster x #13 Wheaten hen   (100% W offspring)

PEN #11
#11 Wheaten Rooster x #10 Blue Wheaten hens (50/50 W/BW offspring)

PEN #12
#14 Blue Wheaten Rooster x #15 Blue Wheaten hens   (50% BW, 25% W, 25% SW)

PEN #13
#14 Blue Wheaten Rooster x #6 Wheaten hens   (50/50 W/BW)

The above example show the # of the male and females use that make up the specific breeding pen.  The pen is given a # and then that # is toe-punched on the chicks.  Note that in the above example, where it says "hens" vice "hen", all the hens are of the same number - meaning they are full blood sisters from the same breeding pen the previous year.

I typically have to toe-punch my chicks immediately upon taking them out of the incubator as I normally have several pens hatching at once.  This requires me to keep the eggs separate in the incubator.  Each egg is marked with the Pen # as it is collected from that pen.  I had a metal separate made for my incubator trays (Sportsman 1520) but I've heard of others who used cheap nylon mesh bags obtained from a Dollar Store or such.

The above method allows me to linebreed and keeping meticulous records has enabled me to make, I believe, significant progress with my birds.

Granted, the toe-punch method outlined above does limit one to 16 pens (Zero being counted as 0 or 16) but if there's anyone that needs more than 16 pens of one variety, they're probably a whole lot better breeder than me and they've got a lot more money/facilities/time than I have!  Paul Smith does talk about a method he uses to add more than 16 pen #'s.  I started with 15 pens and have been trying to get down to just 2.  I'm currently at four now.

The reason I prefer toe-punching over bands and such is because I've experienced bands soming off (I have NO idea how that happens!) and I've experienced the numbers wearing off the band.  Either of which basically relegates the bird as useless for breeding.  At least where linebreeding and not flock breeding is concerned.  It is imperative that each parent is absolutely identified and thus subsequently each chick is absolultely recorded according to each parentage.  Should a chick, for example, escape out of its little separator, or for some other reason not be able to be absolutely identified by which egg (with corresponding pen # on it) it came from, it is then left unpunched and sold or kept for the EE pen or what-have-you but it is NOT used in subsequent breeding.

I hope this helps as well.

God Bless,

Carrie Gildersleeve:
Has anybody tried the E-Z elastic bands for their chicks? It seems they only go up to a size 9, so then you would have to switch to bandettes? Sharon, I really like your method for tracking chicks, is your offer to help with setting up pens still open?  ;)

Sharon Yorks:
Sure! I'd be happy to help  :)

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