How to dye vents to determine who lays what?

[SueT]

How to do multicolored bands? I saw the ones at TSC online and there's only 4 colors...

Also, one of the colors is red. Won't that cause the others to peck it thinking it's blood?

In my flock the only hard to differentiate multiples are 3 leghorns. One went broody and after, I put a red zip tie on her leg so I'd know who. None of the others bother it, and it has been on for 5 or 6 months.
If there are only 4 colors of bands, what about putting various combinations of more than one band, more than one leg? I'm sure there are more than 12 combos.

 

[aart]

How to do multicolored bands? I saw the ones at TSC online and there's only 4 colors...

Also, one of the colors is red. Won't that cause the others to peck it thinking it's blood?

There are multi-color packages with more than 4 colors, I've found them at the hardware store n the 4" type I prefer...or look at other sources inline(amazon).
Or just the the 4 colors, go both legs and doubles.
Red is not a problem, fallacy, or no chicken would have combs and wattles.

 

[ChickenTenderz]

We use the colored zip ties on our hens. I can tell them apart but it is much easier to just see what color their band is. We have 7 hens- 4 RIR & 3 BA
We are planning to do the food coloring thing to see who is laying what this weekend. Any tips on what works best? Planning to use the same color dye as their leg band to keep it simple. Should I mix food coloring with Vaseline or something to make it stay longer? I only have the regular food coloring not the gel.