Injecting chicken eggs?

I don't think it's true. They dye the chicks afterward.

 

I read in my chicken book that it is done to identify chickens. There is a way to do it.

 

Yes, they do. One of the large hatcheries colors chicks for easter. The dye is most often injected into the egg a few days prior to hatching. Many people find it cruel but it is usally male leghorns and a way for them to sell alot of them as a novelty.

 

I bought my first two chicks at Easter and one was blue and the other red. My blue one turned out to be a Deleware and the other is a RIR. They were injected. MY Deleware is crowing as of two days ago but the other one isn't yet but I think it is only a matter of time. After those two I went back and got another ( undyed ) chick. And now I also have two three week old black minorcas. I guess I got chicken fever lol

 

Actually the chicks are straight run, since they are injected while in the shell, and no one can yet, that I know of, sex an egg.

Silly girl!

 

Easter chicks are dyed both ways.

Some are dyed while still in the shell. They use a needle and carefully inject dye and then reseal the hole with wax. The chicks hatch out whatever color dye was injected. This method was first developed for research and identification. It had practical uses at first. That way you could track which chick was which, instead of legbands. I also read that it was used to study wild water fowl. I still have a hard time seeing a momma mallard and her raindbow colored brood. LOL The ones dyed in the shell are straight run.

I have also heard that the chicks were dipped or dunked. I'm sure this way has quite a bit more risk behind it. These I can see being the majority extra cockerels as MissPrissy stated. The larger hatcheries usually have a surplus of cockerels, so sometimes they'll dunk them and send them off to be bought and kept(for however long).

I think if I were to color any of my chicks, I would do it while they were still in the egg. The idea of dunking my new chicks into dye just doesn't seem quite right to me, but then again I have watched day-old chicks fall into their water and be just fine.

Just to be clear, the dye is injected into the egg and not the chick. So they are coloring the fluid that the chick is already in.

-Kim