Wing bands

I use Jiffy wing bands to ID every bird on the place except the swans. Most of the suppliers on the bottom of my Hatcheries page carry them.

I don't band the birds til they're about 2 weeks old, as before that time the bands tend to slip and either reverse or get infected. I wait until 3 weeks with bantams. If I need to ID earlier than that, I use a toe-punching system.

This is a 4-week-old Buff Wyandotte-- you can still see the wingband pretty clearly

On this 8-week-old Dorking it is totally hidden when the wing is folded (on hardfeathered birds like Modern Games the wing bands sometimes remain visible)

The same 8-week-old with his wing stretched -- even with some feathers plucked the band is almost invisible