Are ALL Dyed Easter Chicks Male?

[jc12551]

Chicken sex chromosomes are not X, Y like humans, but Z, W. All birds (and a host of other organisms) have the ZW inheritance system. The genes in the EGG from the hen determine the sex of the offspring. But is is actually a bit more complicated than that:

http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2010/03/every_cell_in_a_chicken_has_its_own_male_or_female_identity.php

Article on how to dye
http://chickscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/resources/egg_to_chick/coloring.html

Vegetable dyes used in dying chicks should not affect the male/female ratio of the offspring.

 

[Horsefly]

I don't think the dye should affect the gender of the chicks. I think the dye is injected in the eggs in the last few days of incubation. That being said my neighbor got 5 dyed chicks last year and they all turned out to be males