Are ALL Dyed Easter Chicks Male?

[DragonEggs]

I wasn't sure where to post this, but here goes!
First of all this is NOT for a debate of whether or not dying baby chicks is right or wrong. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but do NOT argue about it here.
I am trying to collect information. I have heard from many people that the process of injecting the dye somehow interferes with the developing embryo's DNA and makes all of the resulting dyed chicks turn out male. I want to know from anyone who has experience with dyed chicks if they turned out to be male or female. I am seeking to prove or disprove, and if this isn't true, perhaps come up with a percentage of male to female ratio.
Thanks everyone!

 

[magoochie]

I dont know if that is true or not. I have not ready up on breeding and genetics stuff enough to know. However, in my opinion(without reading up on it) I would assume the gender is determined based on the what sperm is in the egg.

Just like humans, its either an x or y chromosome that makes you a boy or girl. I dont think temperature, or dye, or whatever can change a chromosome.

Maybe I'm wrong, but thats my thought anyway.

 

[austinandkara]

People dye the chicks after they are hatched. It would be extremely difficult and costly to manipulate a chick's genes to make it easter colored. The dyes could not change a chick's genetic make-up.

 

[okieinalaska]

Actually you can dye them before they hatch and it does not involve gene manipulation.

 

[DragonEggs]

Actually the dye is injected into the egg.

 

[stephamilly]

I don't know much about it either, but from what I read in Storey's guide to raising chickens, if you are going to dye them in the egg, the optimal time is from days 11 to 14 of incubation. I would assume that the chick's gender would be determined by then, but I can't say for sure.

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

no dying them in the egg does not affect sex. I have an old neighbor who would dye their eggs before hatch, and had both male and females.

I do not know when the sex has become figured, I do believe birds (and chickens

) are like reptiles as where temperature inside the eggs can effect the male/female ratio of the hatch. Don't hold me too that, but it makes sense.

ANYWAY - do not worry about dying chicks becoming all male. Just make sure the dye you inject in the egg has sat inside the incubator and allowed to warm to 70-80 degrees before starting to inject - colder than that could shock the embryos and THAT could potentially have an effect on internal temperature and gender?? Who knows. That is a thought, try warm dye VS cooler dye, and mark the eggs and resulting chicks (blue chicks warm green chicks cool something like that

) and zip tie them color coded once the feathers start to come in so you can keep track if you get more males or females that way ?? lol just an idea.

 

[Sphinx]

Last year, I bought 4 chicks that had been dyed. I believe the eggs were injected with dye.

The green and the pink ones were pullets. Unfortunately, the pink chick died. The other three lived to be adults.

Here's one of the roosters:

I gave the two roosters away, but Clover, the green one, still lives with us. She is an amazing layer- I get 6 eggs a week from her.
Here she is with my other hens.

 

[Erica]

A few thoughts from someone who's never done it...

I would think it's possible to hatch mostly males if the dye or the method used kills some of the developing embryos. It's quite common for small deviations from normal incubation to favour the survival of boys.

Another idea (not researched): I suppose if the food dye uses influences hormone expression it could also have an effect on the outcome, not in terms of actual sex (this will still be chromosomally determined) but in terms of whether that sex is expressed fully. Another means by which you might get an apparent sex ratio imbalance... ?

Not disagreeing with the others, just wondering aloud.

 

[Judy]

Dyed Easter chicks used to be more likely to be male, simply because this is one of the ways people got rid of excess males. Obviously this is not true of chicks dyed while still in the egg.