leg band identification ideas

[bluebutterfly213]

Update......

Couldn't wait for the babies to fledge so Im trialling the cut down leg bands on an adult gouldian hen Ive just bought today. She hasnt had leg rings so she will probably give them a good workout!

[carmena]

Just found this thread. I cut the split bands in half also.
What I do to ID clutches is probably kinda odd. I give each one of my breeder birds a color. I place that one color on their right leg. Then I band with a half band the colors of mom and dad on the babies right foot. So a baby with a red/purple band tells me its dad is "red" and mom is "purple" Only my breeders I single band. SInce I dont have that many birds I have not run out of colors yet. I can have a banded "purple" mom and dad since the top band color on the babies is always the dad and the bottom band is to show who the mom is.
If I hand feed a bird or know I want to keep a specific baby I put a 1/2 green band on the left foot and if I know I am going to get rid of (sell,trade,give away) the babies, then I put a 1/2 black band on the left foot.

[ac12]

carmena
The problem will be banding the next generation.

I thought long and hard about color coding, and everything I could think of broke down sooner or later.

I finally fell back to what I have been preaching in the IT world...non-intelligent numbering. Have the intelligence in a book, were you can put so much more data/information.

[bluebutterfly213]

Well two weeks in with the cut down rings and the hen Im trialling hasnt lost the bands. She seemed to accept them really well.

carmena........
I did consider that type of banding too, but I had been used to the dog world kind of record keeping so I wanted to be able to recognise each bird individually, so that I could say "This bird is from the second clutch and came into the adult colours really quickly"

ac12.............
I use http://www.ikom.com as a database for all the information for my birds. A great FREE database. Ikom is a member on this forum.
Each time I band a youngster I write out a general information page for the bird being banded with the hatch date, band colours and on the back is a five generation pedigree. This is kept in a folder. Next time Im on the net this information is added to the database. This way I have two ways to access the information. Pages can be printed from the database too, but I had already started with my written system before I started using http://www.ikom.com so I decided to continue using both.

[carmena]

I use http://www.ikom.com as a database for all the information for my birds. A great FREE database. Ikom is a member on this forum.
Pages can be printed from the database too, but I had already started with my written system before I started using http://www.ikom.com so I decided to continue using both.

I went to that link and I don't see anything pertaining to birds , just a domain name parking lot. Is that the correct url???
Sounds like a great idea though.

[ikhom]

I went to that link and I don't see anything pertaining to birds , just a domain name parking lot. Is that the correct url???
Sounds like a great idea though.

No, the correct address is http://ikhom.com.
I do a lot of modifications to database. If you have any ideas to improve it let me know.
I recently added Pairs and Clutches and back up to Excel is next on my list (so I can meet Liz requirements ).
You always can PM if you have any problems.

[carmena]

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh
how cool is that!!!

I checked it out and I am very excited.
So I think I need to re read this thread and decide on a better way to ID my birds. My system works ok now but as ac12 pointed out, the subsequent generations will get confusing.

hmmmm, this program opens up some interesting options.

[bluebutterfly213]

I went to that link and I don't see anything pertaining to birds , just a domain name parking lot. Is that the correct url???

carmena..... you are right it leads to a totally different site. I must have been typing faster than I was thinking.

Ikhom is right about the updating, there is always something being added to the site to make the record keeping easier.