Ringing chooks

Cabbie37 · « **on:** October 21, 2008, 15:32 »

No - not their necks! I hatched out some Pekins earlier this year to add to my existing flock. I want to be able to identify them from the originals as they reach maturity, but of course, they all look the same to me! Ringing would seem the obvious answer, but they have such feathery legs, I wonder whether anyone has any other suggestions as to what would be the best approach.

Thanks in advance.... Cabbie

Bodger · « **Reply #1 on:** October 21, 2008, 15:44 »

I wing tag all my chickens. Hang on I'll get some pictures. They are both coloured and numbered.

If you are seriously into breeding chickens its imperative that you keep meticulous records of your breeding programme. In order to this , you must be 100% confident in identifying your chickens.
Here some literature to help you achieve this.

This is a valuable bit of information and once again we are indebted to our American friend for it.

I ordered 300 of these wing tags whilst I was over in the States. They are coloured and numbered.

The company was a bit slow in getting them to me and Flatiron kindly posted them on to me. :thumbup:

Roughlee Handled · « **Reply #2 on:** October 21, 2008, 15:56 »

Bodger I also have been thinking about ringing as most of my girls do not have names. I have two questions
1. What size is good for chucks?
2. Where can I get coloured and numbered rings?

Roughlee Handled · « **Reply #3 on:** October 21, 2008, 16:00 »

I am talking about leg rings or bands.

Bodger · « **Reply #4 on:** October 21, 2008, 16:40 »

I bought some plastic spiral rings the other day from my local agricultural merchant. You can get them in different colours so that you can put yellow ones on all those hatched in 2008 and so on. They have the advantage over the wing tags because you can see them without having to pick the birds up. The wing tags have numbers on and can't be seen unless you look extremely closely but I can get more information from them.

I keep a book with all the numbers and the individual ancestory of each and every bird written down.

Aunt Sally · « **Reply #5 on:** October 21, 2008, 17:19 »

Aggy has no problem telling her birds apart !

She just dresses them differently

chickenlady · « **Reply #6 on:** October 21, 2008, 17:22 »

lovin the red toe nails

that has really cheered me up thanks Aunty (she looks kind of humiliated though!

)

Bodger · « **Reply #7 on:** October 21, 2008, 17:50 »

That budgie in the background is looking pretty worried incase its his turn next. :shock: Whose a pretty boy then ?

Cabbie37 · « **Reply #8 on:** October 22, 2008, 12:52 »

The spiral bands are the sort of thing I was considering - those and other sorts can be found on e-bay if you search for chicken rings. The trouble is, they seem to suit 'clean legged' varieties (as in the photo) but my pekins have feathered and I'm not sure leg rings would be 'comfortable' for them. Wing tagging might be best.

Bodger · « **Reply #9 on:** October 22, 2008, 13:40 »

The wing tags are cheap enough, but remember, you need an applicator to put them in with.

woodburner · « **Reply #10 on:** October 22, 2008, 18:42 »

I put rings on my silkies without even thinking about the featheriness. :oops:
Apart from a short period when we thought one had come off (it was just further up the leg, persumably held up and hidden by the feathers) they are fine with them.

I don't like the idea of cutting membranes and stuff, so am going to use combinations of different coloured rings and legs. Perhaps left leg for batch and right leg to identify individually. As long as each bird has a unique combination and I don't lose my stock book :!: :roll: , it won't really matter if a batch doesn't have a collective identifier.

Daisycow · « **Reply #11 on:** October 22, 2008, 21:12 »

One of my pekins came from a breeder, and she has a ring on her leg...it doesnt get caught in her feathers though. She never seems bothered by it, so we have left it on there. The only numbers we know the meaning of are her birth year, the rest means nothing to us, but did to the breeder. It isnt a spiral ring, its a solid one, prob 7/8mm wide if I remember right (she's moulting now, I am frightened to touch her as all her feathers fall out!! :shock: )

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