my mom use to make hundred of dollars for Easter with chicks and ducks. None of us would eat any fresh eggs for a long time. We would save all our eggs for a big hatch. She had orders, weeks in advance. I would hear her tell people that spoke of the colored chicks,"well if you don't mind a white rooster and you will either keep him or eat him later, go ahead and buy them, but if your kids don't mind them not being pink, green or purple, you can have a chance at a possible pullet with mine." The were surprised to learn that they were all males. She would even try to engage them in bets to prove her point. She really did well. She ran out of chicks one year and started sending people to me.......she knew I had a bunch of hens that had been broody for weeks.
I don't know how I feel about dying the chicks. I have received some chicks after they were too old and had lost their colors from people I knew. They had advised their kids that their roos would be happier at ms. rhoda's house with all the other chickens. Still, I would wish they wouldn't be white leghorns. If I had my choice I would rather spend a few more cents and have them be buff orphingtons or white giants or even cornish X's. You feed something that will be too flighty and give you not much meat. And if someone without the experience most of us have gets a leghorn and decides to keep him, you know he will end up chasing a child.
Hey.......I never thought of it.....I can do a Momma when Lent is half over too!!! YeeHaa!!
