Ideal no longer carries dyed easter ducks and chicks :(

[EweSheep]

For those who wants dyed easter chick, ducklings and goselings, and you are going to butcher them for meat or for your own purposes, you can order from the hatchery and dye them yourself. That I don't have a problem with that at all. Yes for cuteness factor AND feed your family as well.

The people who buys them for novelties should not be having them, period.

 

[P0U1TRYP3RS0N]

Quote:
Well stated. And a good point. You are spot on

And to the other poster...Didn't know about the rights-group-that-shall-not-be-named rule. Sorry

I shall go in try to delete the

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
Honestly I didn't know chicks could be dyed topically! I thought it was all done in-shell because topically would wash off too easily.

(edit: a natural topical dye, I mean, would wash off easily... I'm guessing anything that dyes a chicken for a couple weeks is probably not natural.)


Why not order chicks, blend up some beets and dip them in beet juice? Might work...

Ideal might not have them but I saw some In NC last spring eastern NC and I think they used easter egg dye topically

 

[ranchhand]

 

[cybercat]

Dyed chicks for easter is just a bad idea. I am glad they stopped it.

 

[herechickchick]

If I remember correctly the chicks that Ideal used for the "Easter chicks" were Leghorn Roosters from eggs that were hatched for a commercial egg laying facility? Is this right?

 

[EweSheep]

Quote:
And they use any white feathered breeds such as White Minorcas, White Rocks, White Cornish (and X's) whatever they can use. Dark feathered chicks usually are not popular for dye ing. Sometimes randomly, they would use washy colors of sex links in red sex links, NH Reds to get the vibrant effects of colors.

 

[herechickchick]

Quote:
And they use any white feathered breeds such as White Minorcas, White Rocks, White Cornish (and X's) whatever they can use. Dark feathered chicks usually are not popular for dye ing. Sometimes randomly, they would use washy colors of sex links in red sex links, NH Reds to get the vibrant effects of colors.

but they are all roosters right?

 

[al6517]

So if food coloring is not good for the chicks health, what will happen if anything now that I have dabbed a very small dot of green food coloring on their crowns on some recently hatched day olds I was trying my hand at vent & feather sexing ????. I hatched them myself and wanted to get better at sexing them using different methods. Most of the coloring is now almost all gone and I need to re-apply something to help me ID them as I have, they are still only 2 wks old any idea's ??. Not wanting to hijack it was just a related sorta thing.

AL

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Quote:
AL, I did that for several years when I was learning to vent sex. Also marked the few chicks I needed to ID from special matings, expermintal crosses, etc. I always just put a dot on their heads with different colored sharpie markers and re-applied as needed.

None of mine ever grew any extra heads or anything.

As for as the OP's colored Easter chicks, several places still sell them, (Or did last time I looked) but I never saw the point myself. IMHO 99.9% will be bought by people who don't really want, need or deserve chickens.
They are cute little buggers though.... 'til the color wears off.