Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 132, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 June 1919 — “FOOTPRINT” MARKS TO IDENTIFY FOWLS [ARTICLE]

“FOOTPRINT” MARKS TO IDENTIFY FOWLS

Farmers Should Avoid Confusion by Marking Chicks. System Outlined Offers Practical Means of Identification as Efficient as Bertillon System of Recording Criminals. (Prepared by the United States Department Of Agriculture.) It is a practice of some poultrymen and farmers to maintain old hens in the flock and to cull the* younger hens and pullets because of the difficulty in distinguishing between the birds after the pullets have matured. Farmers should avoid such confusion by marking the young chicks in the web of the foot with a toe punch before they are transferred to the brooder or the brood coop. A system such as the following Offers practical means of identification for chickens: ‘ The bird without any holes punched in the web of either foot should be (known as No. 1; No. 2 has a punch mark in the right half of the right foot; No. 3 bears a mark in the left of the right foot; No. 4 shows a mark in the right side of the left foot ; No. 5 a similar mark in the left half of the left foot; No. 6 bears marks in both sides of the right foot, while No. 7 carries similar marks in both sides of the left foot. Bird No. 8 is identified by a mark in the left side of the right foot and another on the right side of the left foot, while No. 9 is known by a mark in the right side of the right foot and the left side of the left foot; No. 10 shows a mark In the left side of the right foot and the left side of the left foot, while No. 11 is marked on the right side of the right foot and the test side of the right foot. This system Of marking may be continued indefinitely according to the ingenuity of the individual poultryman in mapping out a footprint schedule. It provides means of identification for fowl as efficient as the Bertillon system of finger-print records of criminals.