When I first started raising peachicks I thought I would be able to tell them all apart by their color as they mature. That is usually true but I find that I need to know their colors at a younger age and really find some form of color ID very helpful in raising my peachicks. With more chicks hatched than I want to confess this year color, ID has been important. I have tried several things over the last few years so will share what I have learned.

The first place to start in keeping your peachicks ID correct is their eggs. Each egg must be clearly and carefully labeled. I find that best way for me is to label them is in the pens while collecting. I use a fine tipped permanent marker and label them with the pen number, the color of bird, date layed, and date set. This way I have no chance of “scrambling” or mixing the eggs and labeling them wrong. Since most of my eggs are artifically incubated they must be carefully place in the incubator at hatching time.  The best way I have found so far to ID peachicks at hatching is to let them hatch in a sealed net. This is done so the chicks can’t play “musical eggs/chairs” switching positions from where they hatched. To do this, I purchase plastic scrubbies from the dollar store and cut them into long tubes that I can put 1-4 eggs of the same color into then tie them off with pipe cleaners. When the chicks hatch they are held in the netting waiting for ID pipe cleaner leg bands that I describe below.

I find that the wing tags and I do not always work well together. In very blunt terms, I don’t like them.  They are in my mind a necessary evil at times.  I find myself worrying that I am hurting them or that the tag will rip out of the wing leaving a scar or worse. I have been told there is no other way to tell them apart, that I must use them. I have attempted to put them in when the peachick is very small only to realize the Wee Pea has the smallest little triangular wing webbing and a poorly installed wing tag can cause problems so I decided to try something new this summer. I have done color coded leg tags with zip ties in the past but they present their own problems. If one is too loose it slides quickly off. If one chick slips past my inspection and doesn’t get them replaced as they grow, then a tourniquet can happen on the peachick leg so this must be diligently monitored to keep the chick from having leg problems. Even with great diligent, one could still slip past me so I have given up using zip ties on the youngest peachicks since I feel I have found something better. They just grow too quickly. This summer I tried color coded pipe cleaners for leg bands. I start with about an inch or maybe a little more of pipe cleaner and twist it around my little finger or around a pencil to make a coil. Next I put one on each leg of the newly hatched peachicks. I adjust the fit so that they are secure but freely move and rotate on the peachick’s leg like a bracelet. PLEASE NOTE, I DO NOT TWIST THE ENDS TOGETHER. This would be like a zip tie but with potentially more dangerous outcome with wire cutting into the chicks leg if not changed when the chick out grows it. I leave the ends open for growth and expansion for the growing peachick. It is important to put a color coded leg “bracelet” on each leg just in case one comes off it can be replaced with the other leg bracelet as a color guide. They do not seem to bother the chicks at all. If I miss one, they do not seem to get too tight. They tend to grow a little bit with the chicks since they are not twist tied on. They are left as an open coil that can expand with the quickly growing chick. I use color coding in the pipe cleaners so I can quickly pick out the chicks color even at a young age. For example, Peach chicks get an orange leg band. Bronze BS WE and reg. Bronze chicks get red since I can tell them apart as they grow all I need to know is they are in the bronze family so red pipe cleaners identify them for me. Violette, Violette Pied, and Purple chicks all get purple pipe cleaner leg bands. Since Violette peachicks and Purple peachicks are easy to tell apart the purple pipe cleaner colors doesn’t get confusing. When I have a white chick from the Violette Pied pen hatch, these also get the purple leg bands so they will be paired with other Violette peachicks keeping the color families together.

As the peachicks grow, I do use color coded wing bands when their wings are big enough to put in with out a risk to the placement. But another reason I don’t like wing tags is that they don’t install with out fail. Note the pictures of the failed wing tags. Some just smash the wing web, others pierce the wing web but do not hook under the wing to the other side of the wing band. These will both fall out and cause unneeded pain to the chick. I find too that while working with them, that the chicks are stressing from being restrained. I end up wearing more poop than the chicks have in their cages and it simply is a messy and unpleasant job. One last note is that I have gotten grown peafowl from other breeders that put the wing tags in when the chicks are very small. The wing tag ends up being a gauge that can create a gaping hole in the wing. I’ve also had an adult peacock that I purchased with a wing tag embedded in their wing. It gets crusty and looks painful. So for me, I will continue to look for a good substitute for wing bands for the chicks when they are older. As they grow to maturity, I will ID my peafowl with color coded zip ties on their legs to quickly ID the birds. The zip ties will only be used with mature birds to avoid the possible tourniquet on a growing bird. As my birds grow and reach adult size, I will remove the wing tags that I may have used to avoid the possibility of an embedded wing tag or the large gauging of their wings and replace them with the color coded zip ties. I have had some explain this is not painful to peafowl and it is like having ears pierced or gauged ears, but for me, I prefer not to use that method. If you have any ideas on how to safely and more comfortably ID your birds, I would welcome your comments and suggestions. You can contact me at TLCPEACOCKS@gmail.com