Thanks Catscan......I will make sure to keep checking them. Right now I only have one red one on a hen I am trying to break from being broody. I will put them on the chicks today....the ones I can still find. I will know to keep an eye on them. And here I was all excited to have all these zip ties for such a good price. Hopefully they don't cause any problems. I wonder if using a tiny rubber band, or I was thinking maybe one of my DD's tiny one time use hair elastics to wrap around the inside of the zip tie would prevent them from closing and clamping down?
Christy
Ideas on how to mark chickens?
I think their legs will keep them from clamping down too hard--until they grow--I would be more worried about a rubber band.
yea.. I was gonna mention the polish disappearing really fast.. I think they pecked it off cuz it was shiny... lol imagine having all your friends trying to chew your toenails.
LOL fran
christy how is it i did NOT know you had polish???
Do you think they would eat it or it would slip down the zip tie? I was just wondering why you would be worried about it.
I wondered about the others pecking at the polish, but I didn't notice anything. The others didn't seem to notice it. The little chicks nail are so tiny though. On the hens the polish has stayed really well....so far anyway. None of the other chickens seem to notice them either....which I don't understand how they don't with it being hot pink. Maybe because it doesn't look like any food they have ever eaten it's not worth their time to investigate it? It is still cracking me up every time I see them!
Christy
yeah tf.....been too long since you've worn it too, huh? I used to do my nails ALL the time.......before becoming a chicken slave that is! No point now, huh? : )
yep!
you know, insects use colors to warn others to not eat them if they are poisonous or nasty tasting. so they must think those are some stinky pink worms!
LOL.....they must have learned their lesson the hard way huh?
Christy
Tamarafaye , No and I apologize, I got tied up getting everything ready for boy scout summer camp, I honestly forgot about it, until you gust mentioned it. hopefully they have resolved that by now.
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All chicks, can be toe (web) marked, takes 2 seconds and it is permanant.
oh, well nc...
web marks??? speaking of webs, i noticed roos have more webbing between toes than hens???
toe marking is done on young chicks, you can set thier foot down on a piece of wood and use a razor blade, simply cutting the web between the toes. or you can use a small pair of sharp scissors. sounds worse than it is. they actually make a tool, looks like a hole punch for paper, but much smaller. called a toe punch. but I dislike these because they heal over as often as not. I will take pics tomarrow for you. then you simply keep a index in the house.
all fowl have two webs on each foot, so all markings should be obvious.
left in, left out, left in+out, right in, right out, rt in+out, lt in+rt in, lt in+rt out, lt out+rt in, lt out+rt out, lt out+both rt, lt in+both rt, rt in+ both left, rt out+ both left, and all four. thats 15 different markings then you can take a razor knife and mark the nose. ( on a chickens beak they have a small piece of cartlage above thier nostrils, this can easily be wisped off like a eye on a potato. then you have Just the 15 toe markings,rt nostril+15, left nostril+15, both nostril+15, plus rt nostril no toe, lt nostril no toe, and both nostril no toe. that is 63 different markings. Hard to believe at one time I had so many pens, many had to share markings, like I would have a family of red fowl marked rt in, and then a family of black fowl marked rt in, it was crazy back then, hatched them out 300-400+ at a time, put the eggs in onion sacks 3 days before hatch time so they couldnt get mixed up in the bator, lol. it would take hours to mark and dip each beak in water.
grown fowl can be marked the same way, only I use a butaine torch and a coat hanger, with vise-grips hold a 3 inch piece of coathanger in the flames till red, poke through the web, and done, sounds horrible but its healed almost overnight, There is no meat in the web of thier feet, just a layer of skin on each side with nothin in the middle, so the burn is insignificant, though all burns you can think of, involve meat damage, and long heal time, there is no place on a human body that compares to a chickens web. think about it a minute.
I have never had but one to even squauk, and that was my bad, about the 5th or 6th I had ever done, and I was 1/2 scared of him, having had him flog me pretty bad a couple of times before. and got his toe. I was just a kid then.
TamaraFaye as far as web size hens and cocks, I have noticed that cocks have bigger feet, but as far as more webbing, I cant say I have ever noticed, no.