Thinning the flock

[egon]

Just a word of caution. Never name any farm animal that may become farm produce.

Egon

[zuiko]

Where did you get the bands? That would be a neat way to tell them apart. I can recognize about a good number of them but there are several I can't tell apart.

[Jonathan]

I got bands at the local feed store. They were behind the counter so I had to ask. They're also available on the Internet. One site is http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/product/leg_bands.html

Plastic bands are easy to use, but get dirty in mud. I occasionally scrape the mud off if they're too hard to read. The bands have helped me most in identifying the egg eaters. One supper later the egg supply doubled. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

BTW, the web page with the leg bands also shows a "Fowl Catcher"--a pole with a wire hook for grabbing their legs. I don't have one but it looks like it might help with the skittish birds.

[Bird]

That "fowl catcher" is the same thing I was trying to describe that we used when I was a kid, except we made our own and didn't have that fancy plastic handle. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[chrisjbell]

See, that's the problem. My daughter named all of them as chicks. They ain't so cute any more... [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] These are the last to get names, for sure.

But a cute story - my daughter is in kindegarten, and one of the things they do every day is write a sentence in a "Journal". The day after she learned of the demise of the roosters she wrote, "Daddy killed the ferocious rooster." [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] (No, I have no idea where she learned "ferocious" :-)