A wing band is the number a bird carries for life. Set in the wing web on young stock, it stays with the bird and does not need re-banding — which is why the band style is worth a few seconds of thought before ordering a hundred of them.
We engrave two styles: ZIP and JIFFY. Same aluminum, same lasers, same numbering, same price. What separates them is application, permanency and size.
Take ZIP wing bands if you want a farm name, a number, and a design, the largest text possible on the band — or if you want the widest color range to sort biddies by eye. Take JIFFY wing bands if you want the smallest band that still carries a readable name and number and can be applied sooner due to the self-piercing application style.
Everything below is the long version of that sentence.
ZIP bands are a grommet/seal type closure and often regarded as a more permanent banding method due to this. The caveat to this, is that for each band a small hole must be made for the band to be applied through. This differs from the application style of the JIFFY band.
The ZIP also gives you the most engraving room of the two, and that little bit of extra room is what makes designs possible.
If you want the largest text possible or a design added to your bands, the extra space here is usually what decides it.
JIFFY wing bands are a self-piercing style of wing band with a folding closure. This means that installing the JIFFY band is as easy as seating into your JIFFY band pliers, holding in the location you want the band applied, and gently applying pressure until the band has been closed.
You will hear that this closure can loosen as fowl grow and drop the band. We run both styles here and have never seen it, but you should hear that from us rather than from somebody else.
JIFFY is the smaller wing band, and the smaller face is the point. These bands apply easier than any other band style and can be applied far sooner than any other band style because of this.
That last one is a deliberate limit rather than an oversight. A design pushed onto a face too small to hold it comes back muddy, and a band you cannot read is a band not serving its full purpose.
Most of it. Both are engraved to order on our lasers after your order comes in — engraved, not ink-stamped. Both run the same quantities at the same price.
Sets run from 50 to 1,000, and shipping is free on every band set either way.
This trips up more breeders than the band choice does. Bands are engraved in one consecutive run: you pick the quantity, then you pick the number the run starts at. A 100-count set starting at 01 runs 01 through 100.
Starting fresh, choose 01. Adding to a yard you already band, start where your last set ended. That is the whole trick to never putting the same number on two birds…at least not at the same time.
The two styles do not share pliers. ZIP bands are applied using the ZIP wing band pliers; JIFFY bands with the JIFFY wing band pliers. Either pair ships free alongside a band set.
If you want the band to carry your farm’s identity or text in the largest form possible and appreciate the peace-of-mind permanence, go with the ZIP bands. If you value being able to band as early as possible and the convenience of a self-piercing design more, go with JIFFY bands. Either style is hard to go wrong with in our opinion, and we’ll be happy to help you Make Your Mark.
Still weighing the wing against the leg? The full range sits on the leg and wing bands page, and our gamefowl leg bands cover the at-a-glance side of the same record.
A breeder’s guide to marking and banding chicks — toe-punch charts, wing bands, and numbered leg bands — so you can track every bloodline from hatch to full-grown fowl.
Too loose and it’s gone; too tight and it’s trouble. A size-by-size guide to matching the band to the bird.