Green colored feathers and poop? Help??

[Furryposm]

Ok, so I have just started raising chickens. I hatched some different eggs, the ones that actually hatched are doing pretty good. I guess I had issues with humidity which killed a lot of my chicks before hatching. ( sad )

However, trying to get the humidity right, I read to put some food coloring in the water so I could more easily keep track of how much I had.

So when I had 2 Brahma ( out of 10) hatch with green around mouths and feet,I figured it was the food coloring. But they are almost 5 days now, and still have green on them, and are still pooping green food coloring?


These are the only ones who have green on them, and the only ones I was told were tested for diseases and came from registered stock NPIP??

Am I missing something here??

Thanks

 

[Poultry parent]

the green feathers will probably go away i'm not sure about the poop

 

[Jensownzoo]

Interesting! I guess the food coloring evaporated along with the water to raise the humidity...and then entered the egg via normal respiratory processes. The green was likely incorporated into the yolk and white, so it may take quite a while for the chick to process it all for excretion. I would imagine that eventually you will start seeing the color lighten.

Next time maybe consider using some sort of bobber to keep track of water levels?

 

[Poultry parent]

is the food coloring bad for the developing chicks?

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Probably not. Ideally, you wouldn't add any dye, but it is consumable, food grade, so it shouldn't cause any real damage.

LofMc

 

[Jensownzoo]

is the food coloring bad for the developing chicks?

No, people inject eggs with it to result in colored chicks routinely. I think yours is just a more diluted yet persistent method.

 

[Sea Wolf]

Food coloring is a dye and it does not evaporate and get absorbed from the air. Nor do they inject eggs with dye to make colored chicks. Colored chicks that you see (I thought the practice of doing this was banned) is because the hatched chicks are dunked into a dye solution. Personally, I would not be allowing the chicks access to dye in the water as it is a chemical. Food safe in small amounts for a large human but to a small chick the ratio of what it is consuming is huge. This is also why you should never feed red dyed nectar to hummingbirds. It can eventually kill them. If your chicks have access to the water you are using for humidity either put a screen over it, raise the sides so they can not reach it or try an organic color like a little bit of grape juice. If they hatched with green on them, I would say it is normal unless they made contact with the dye during hatching. Green poop is green poop. What are you feeding them? They should not be getting anything except the chick starter mash.

 

[Jensownzoo]

Food coloring is a dye and it does not evaporate and get absorbed from the air. Nor do they inject eggs with dye to make colored chicks. Colored chicks that you see (I thought the practice of doing this was banned) is because the hatched chicks are dunked into a dye solution.

Incorrect. You can color chicks using either method: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/02/us/dyeing-easter-chicks-raises-concerns.html?_r=0 and can find instructions through a simple search.

Some dyes do evaporate with water. It is actually a common science fair project to design experiments using this fact. You can set a clean piece of blotting paper in with a container of food-dyed water and watch it gradually turn colored or even cooler is to put two containers of water dye different colors (such as blue and yellow) and watch as they gradually turn into a mixed color (green).

 

[Sea Wolf]

I can not look at the NY Times link as I do not subscribe to the paper. Though I did do some searching and I will stand corrected on that. Chicks can be dyed by either injecting the embryo or by coloring them after they hatch. The injected ones many times do not have a normal lifespan.

On evaporating dyes, your statement about science fair projects is incorrect. Dye does not magically evaporate to color some object through thin air. It is scientifically impossible. The experiment you quote has nothing to do with colors evaporating. It is called chromatography and I will leave you to do the research on that and learn how it works.

Still .. with the eggs, unless those eggs were sitting in green dye the color would not be able to get to the chicks. Even then, I think the shell membrane would be as far as it went. Hopefully the OP can define whether the new chicks were drinking the green water or not. I have chicks that hatch with green gapes and legs/feet. It is because of their breeding, not dye. It also depends on just what shade of green they are talking about.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I was assuming the chicks had gotten into the green water or condensation thereof after hatch as they ran about the incubator and the color transfer was external not internal.

I too seriously doubt the dye evaporated into the steam to condense on the shells to then through osmosis transfer through the shell membrane into the chick. At most, you might have seen some green water condensation on the shells. (I'll have to try steaming a pan of dyed water...but I'm pretty sure the water condensation would have some dye in it).

Photos would really help us see what the OP is commenting about.

LofMc