Baby Pics - dyed Easter chicks

[AccidentalFarm]

I know, I know...I don't like it either. But I bought 4 of the dyed chicks anyway, because it was all that was available locally. I don't like any animals dyed to induce 'impulse' buys, but that's not why I wanted them. Anyway, they are still cute babies and they are starting to loose the dyed fuzz and get their real feathers now.

These are pics from my phone, so not great quality. Chicks are 2 weeks old. I'm not sure what 3 of them are, they are starting to feather out white. I was told that the red baby is a RIR (no joke), it is feathering out browns/blacks. Any ideas??

 

[justusnak]

OMG!! Those are REALLY DYED!!!! Those poor , poor babies!! At least whith you buying them, they will have a great home, and life. Not tortured by a toddler!! Way to go on saveing those babies!

 

[Llysse]

Those poor little things look like cotton candy. It's no wonder kids don't realize they're living things. Glad you saved them, Accidental.

 

[slystr]

Yikes! I've never seen a dyed chick before. I'm glad those few went to a good home.

 

[blevisay]

So is now a good time to say I got my peeps today also.

1 Blue
2 purple
3 Yellow

 

[silkiechicken]

Still surprised to see these things still exist! I have never seen one in feed stores here. Maybe this is a progressive and liberal area that will toss a protest at an instant. the brown feather one could be a RIR, I say the white ones are most likley leghorns. Ugh... Never had good luck with thoes flightly, immune response poor birds. Good luck with them though and lets hope they are hens!!! Sooner they feather out the better.

How much do these colored chicks cost? Are they more or less than normal chicks? I would assume more?

 

[AccidentalFarm]

It is very sad that people do this type of thing. What is even more sad is watching all the parents buying these chicks(and ducks, too) for their very small children. 1 chick here, a couple there...you know they are probably doomed to life in box, as long as they can make it with little or no proper care and being handled by kids (and uncaring adults). The clerk told me they ordered 100 chicks and 75% of them were sold the first day. I would have loved to take them all, but not knowing the breed or the sex of the chicks, I couldn't chance ending up with 20 roo's.
I do wish I knew what breed these little guys(girls?) are. I noticed a few minutes ago that 2 of the chicks have tail feathers coming in. Also, the little red chick (supposed to be a RIR) has a larger bottom than the others. The red and yellow are bigger than the blue and purple. Does size and/or tail feathers indicate anything?

and OMG!! I gave them a moth a couple minutes ago...what a RIOT!

On edit: Silkie- they cost $1.25 each

 

[blevisay]

Quote:
I got mine for $1.50 each. I was setting up for chickens anyway so I went to the feed store and got 6. I will say I didn't expect them to have colored ones either but there they were. I am happy with them.

 

[AccidentalFarm]

Quote:
The chicks are injected with dye as soon as they hatch. I read an article about it and it said that the dye is harmless. As soon as they get their real feathers, the dye is completely out of their system.

What's weird is that even their legs are dyed.

 

[AccidentalFarm]

Oh No!! I remembered the feed store saying they bought the chicks from Ideal, so I looked up the 'easter products' on their webpage and it appears that my 3 feathering white are Cornish Rocks. I looked them up on feathersite and what sad news. They apparently will not live long due to how heavy they get. The pics of the birds with leg problems are soo sad. This is just terrible..I didn't plan on having meat birds- but what do you do with a bird destined for a life like this breed has???

The only other possibility is that they are the 'light colored males' - no breed specified. I know the feed store told me they weren't sure which were male/female...guess they'd have known if they ordered all males. Boy, now i'm really curious.