Toe Punching
A toe punch, available from many poultry supply catalogs, is about the size of fingernail clippers. It functions like a paper-hole punch and is used to remove the web between the toes of a newly hatched chick. As the chick grows, you can identify it parentage by the pattern of its punched-out webs.
When chicks are dry and ready to come out of the incubator, hold each gently but securely in one hand with one of its feet extended. Carefully position the punch over the web. With one firm stroke, punch away the web. Don't just punch a hole through the web, or the web may eventually grow back.
The pattern of removed webs lets you identify chicks from up to sixteen different matings. Here's how it works: on each foot, a chick has three main toes and therefore two webs--the outer web (between the middle and outside toe) and the inner web (between the middle and inside toe).
Starting at the chick's left side, the first web (left outer) stands for 1: the next web (left inner) stands for 2: the next web (right inner) stands for 4; the far right-hand web (right outer) stands for 8. Assign each mating a number from 1 to 15 and identify chicks from each mating by adding up the numbers corresponding to the punched webs. (For a sixteenth mating, leave the chicks unpunched.)
Chicks in batch number 1 have the left outer web punched. Chicks in batch number 2 have the left inner web punched. Chichs in batch number 3 have bothe the left outer and left inner web punched. Chicks in batch number 3 have both the left outer and left inner webs punched (1+2=3) Chicks in batch number 5 have the left outer and right inner webs punched (1+4=5). And so forth.
Toe-punching works only if you know when you open the incubator which chicks came from which mating. You can identify chicks by:
* dyeing embryos
* hatching different matings at different times
* keeping eggs from different matings on different hatching trays
* enclosing small groups of eggs in upside-down baskets (pedigree baskets) such as plastic pint-size fruit baskets.
LEFT FOOT \o! / \ !o/ \o!o/ \ ! / \o! / \ !o/ \o!o/ \ ! / \o! / \ !o/ \o!o/ \ ! / \o! / \ !o/ \o!o/ \ ! / | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 | RIGHT FOOT \ ! / \ ! / \ ! / \o! / \o! / \o! / \o! / \ !o/ \ !o/ \ !o/ \ !o/ \o!o/ \o!o/ \o!o/ \o!o/ \ ! / |
