# Leg Bands gone wrong



## DoubleR (Jan 12, 2014)

Hi yall!
The other day I noticed one of my young hens limping. When I went to check on her that night while roosting (easiest most stress free time to capture around here) I saw that the store bought leg band was cutting into her leg and there was some swelling. 
So of course I checked the entire flock and sure enough over 1/2 had swelling and a few even had puss starting where it was digging in. I was shocked. No one showed any signs until the 1 hen slightly limped. 
These were the large hen size spiral plastic leg bands. There was plenty of "space" to continue to expand but they didn't. 
Anyone seen this or had this problem before? I'm really not happy these did this. This is the first time we've used them. The older hens have zip ties and they are fine but they were also put on as fully mature hens. It wasn't easy to spot that they were "to tight" until physically checking each hen. They looked "fine" when we visually check them everyday up to this point but we do have a lot of hens and it's hard to see legs on each individual one daily. I feel awful.
They are all removed and treated now. Including the ones that weren't to tight "yet". All is well now but it's really bothering me.
Thoughts?


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Which spiral did you use? 

The only one I've ever heard of anyone having issues with were the thin ones. The wide, I used myself without any problems.


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## nj2wv (Aug 27, 2013)

I have only used zip ties so I can make them customized. I only put them on mature hens. If you want to mark your birds then just use zip ties and check every week if they needed adjusting.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

Unfortunately these bands are not spiralled in order to expand as the hens grow - they are spiralled to be easy to put on, take off and reuse. 

You need to replace the bands as the hens grow, any band that fits when the bird is half grown is not going to fit when the bird is grown. I find the size ratings a little smaller than what you'd think most times (my large breed roosters need turkey bands for example). Hopefully your hens heal up quickly. Keep an eye on them for pecking.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Fiere said:


> Unfortunately these bands are not spiralled in order to expand as the hens grow - they are spiralled to be easy to put on, take off and reuse.
> 
> You need to replace the bands as the hens grow, any band that fits when the bird is half grown is not going to fit when the bird is grown. I find the size ratings a little smaller than what you'd think most times (my large breed roosters need turkey bands for example). Hopefully your hens heal up quickly. Keep an eye on them for pecking.


I bought larger bands also. Something else I remembered, the bands we used to buy were made in the US. Then they moved production to China before I quit. Could be an issue there too.


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## DoubleR (Jan 12, 2014)

robin416 said:


> Which spiral did you use?


I bought them from Jeffers. I'd say they are more than likely the "thin" ones.


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## DoubleR (Jan 12, 2014)

Fiere said:


> Unfortunately these bands are not spiralled in order to expand as the hens grow - they are spiralled to be easy to put on, take off and reuse.
> 
> You need to replace the bands as the hens grow, any band that fits when the bird is half grown is not going to fit when the bird is grown. I find the size ratings a little smaller than what you'd think most times (my large breed roosters need turkey bands for example). Hopefully your hens heal up quickly. Keep an eye on them for pecking.


We've never marked hens in the past. This last season we had 20+ hens and only getting a few eggs so we had to separate individually and mark those who were laying. The non layers became dinner while the old layers were marked and still live on. We just couldn't afford that many non layers. We bought a new group of chicks and wanted to mark them all the same so as to keep them "separated". We were told by several people (not here) that they expand as they grow and we questioned this because they were so stiff. I should have checked there legs closely more often. 
They are healing well and we've learned a valuable lesson. We bough large hen size and put them on when they got bigger. Very disappointed but they will be ok. We caught it fairly early.
Will not buy them again. If we need to mark hens in the future we'll stick with zip ties.

Thank you all for the comments.  Been pretty upset with myself over this.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

I get zip ties at the dollar store, you can get tiny little ones for chicks and big ones (in all sorts of colours if you plan on breeding and need to mark parentage - or if you just want to be fancy) . Easy to remove with a pair of nail clippers and oh so much cheaper.


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## DoubleR (Jan 12, 2014)

I got some thanks to your post!  Work great! Thanks!


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