Ideal...green dot...broiler chicks...

[EggsForIHOP]

I have a sidekick who ordered some broiler chicks from Ideal this week - we got to talking, and about half of them have a green mark on them...they are just the plain old regular white broilers...does anyone know what the green dot means?

I told her to call Ideal and ask...but it was too late and is now of course the weekend...you KNOW it is going to drive us nuts until Monday wondering too!

Any thoughts or past experiences? I know, things might have changed...but input is appreciated!

 

[OtterCreekRanch]

Are they straight run? If so may be the males or females that were already sexed for another group and then put back together for whatever reason. I know when I ordered a pair of ducks the male was marked with a dot (may have been red, but I was thinking it was green) so I would know which duckling was which...which was a good thing because I lost the male during shipping and so I was able to tell them which I needed resent. Of course it said the male was marked on my receipt.

I dunno...just an idea.

 

[EggsForIHOP]

When she brought it up, that was my first guess...just don't know what they would mark? It is a very good thought though...right on track with what we were thinking...just dunno if they are boys or girls with the dot?

 

[itsy]

The meat birds that are in my freezer were from ideal. They're the chicks in my avatar photo. Either way - they were straight run and none were marked.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Sounds to me like a coccidiosis vaccination. That would be my first guess as every chick doesn't have to have the green "dot" to be vaccinated. The chicks will peck at the green dot ingesting the vaccination....

That would be my first guess.... I'm not sure of any other reason for the markings.

 

[EggsForIHOP]

Well, she ordered straight run and DID NOT want the vaccine, none of any sort...so Monday I guess she will call and find out...we'll see...it was just kind of crazy because, well, she wasn't expecting it at all you know?

That's why I figured I;d ask here and see if anyone had ever had a similar experience - between all of us BYCers, there's no telling how many batches of broiler chicks have been shipped

Maybe this is a fluke one with random dots

 

[sydney13]

ive done a few orders with ideal and the only time i ever got a bird that was marked was a goose with a red dot on its head. From what i could tell nothing was special about it.

 

[Ariel301]

Quote:
I've never heard of vaccination being done this way...is that really something they do? Ideal also doesn't vaccinate unless you request it, there's an extra charge per chick for it.

Usually the head dot is just marker, they mark them if you request different breeds/sexes be marked in the box. If there was no reason/request from your friend to have the birds marked, it's possible they were marked for a different order that fell through and they got re-boxed for your friend's order.

 

[EggsForIHOP]

Quote:
This part we kind of figured...but we were wondering if Ideal had a standard system - like green means girls and another color meant boys kind of thing...she's going to call in the morning because the curiosity is KILLER! It would be pretty neat to know half of her batch is roos, or even if it's half hens for sure it would still be neat just to know, since she had ordered straight run...it's so funny when I talk to her, our lives are pretty much focused on farm animals and their daily goings on

Green dots on chicks have been the topic of the weekend around here when she calls!

 

[itsy]