Dying chickens w/ berries!

[Chicken poppy]

Hey! So i know dying chickens with berries is fine. Because im doing very little, their 5 months or so old and im not putting it around their face. I have one questiom though, theres berries here (pokeberries) and i wonder is that okay on them? I read they shouldnt realky ingest it, but im not putting it around their face. (Even though, yes they may groom it off) would that be fine to do? Or best to avoid it

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Pokeweed has phytolaccatoxin, which is quite dangerous to almost everything but songbirds, foxes, and trash pandas (raccoons). Surely you could come up with a better natural stain than a light reactive, blood cell destroying resin?

On general pragmatism, I oppose dying chickings, but not my birds, you do what you want.

 

[Chicken poppy]

Pokeweed has phytolaccatoxin, which is quite dangerous to almost everything but songbirds, foxes, and trash pandas (raccoons). Surely you could come up with a better natural stain than a light reactive, blood cell destroying resin?

On general pragmatism, I oppose dying chickings, but not my birds, you do what you want.

Thank you for your reply, ill avoid using it. I really have no need for dying them anyway, i just wanted a second opinion on it. I heard people saying it was bad, some said it was fine. I was just curious, (i agree in the sense of dying from the egg injections and when their baby chicks, but some people use blueberrys for dye on their feathers which i say is fine)

 

[LaFleche]

Chickens will be preening a lot, and while doing so they would ingest this "natural dye" and get harmed.

Remember: Mother nature provides the most deadly toxins.

And allow me this question: Why would you want to dye your chickens?

 

[Chicken poppy]

Chickens will be preening a lot, and while doing so they would ingest this "natural dye" and get harmed.

Remember: Mother nature provides the most deadly toxins.

And allow me this question: Why would you want to dye your chickens?

Hi, thank you for this reply, please read what i said above for that awnser. I already had heard people say this was a bit toxic, i havent done it, just purely curious On other thoughts on it. Some people actually eat that stuff, so thats what made me think “is this possibly okay?” So i decided to post this thread, thanks again for the awnser! By the way; i will never be doing this to my chicken, i had thought about it, and i posted it here, but sense 2 people thought what i had first thought, ill be sure to stay away from it.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Honestly, I could see using a safer alternative to dye a chicken temporarily for identification purposes. If I had a bunch of white leghorns, but one I wanted to keep an eye on for some reason (say a small wound or a case of vent gleet not worthy of seperation from the flock), then yeah, breiefly dying a few tailfeathers or wingfeathers would be worthy of consideration. Beet Juice?

 

[Chicken poppy]

Honestly, I could see using a safer alternative to dye a chicken temporarily for identification purposes. If I had a bunch of white leghorns, but one I wanted to keep an eye on for some reason (say a small wound or a case of vent gleet not worthy of seperation from the flock), then yeah, breiefly dying a few tailfeathers or wingfeathers would be worthy of consideration. Beet Juice?

I agree with that : ) I absolutely do not agree with injection dye, thats to delicate to mess with atleast for me, beet juice seems like it would work wonderfully aswell, it just stains a bit so if it got on something else it would be tricky to get off!

 

[Sally PB]

Since feathers are mostly protein, Kool-Aid would probably work as a dye. I've used it to dye wool and silk fiber with good results.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

at least you know the dyes involved are food grade, right???

I'd be worried all that sweetness and artificial flavor would make those feathers attractive to other birds. Of course, I can't stand cool aid - but what birds like, and what I like, seem to be two different things. Radically different.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Could you use food coloring? Diluted, of course, because that stuffs pricey. Just thinking about what might be handy in a pinch.