Have you ever looked at your chicken or another's and thought, wouldn't she look great if she was pink? Or maybe blue? Well, here is a step by step guide in where you will learn how to colour chickens!
Method 1 of 2: Coloring Chicken Feathers
1Pick your victim. If you want to make your chicken's feathers look fancy, you can safely do so using a little food coloring. The color will come out best on white-feathered chickens.Ad
2Find some edible food dye. Find some vegetable-based food colors in an array of colors -- blue, green, red, yellow. Pour a few drops of each color into its own small bowl.
3Use a toothbrush to color the feathers. Dip a clean toothbrush into the food coloring and use it to gently rub the dye onto the chickens feathers.
- You may need a helper to hold the chicken and keep it calm while you are completing your work.
- Be careful to avoid the chicken's eyes and orifices.
4Allow the dye to fade on its own. The food coloring should fade from the feathers over time, or be replaced with clean, new feathers as the chicken molts. This can take some time however, so don't use dye if you intend to show or sell your chickens in the near future.Ad
Method 2 of 2: Dyeing Chicken Embryos
1Choose the right time. It's possible to inject dye into chicken eggs during the incubation period, to help distinguish one group of chicks from another after hatching.
- This process is completely safe if done correctly, but can harm or kill the chick if done incorrectly or at the wrong time.
- The safest time to inject the chicken embryos with dye is between the 11th and 14th day of incubation, though it can be done as early as the 10th and as late as the 19th.
2Gather your dye and needle. To inject the chicken egg, you will need a 2 or 3% solution of simple, vegetable-based food coloring.
- Any color can be used to dye the embryos, though blue, green and red tend to work best, especially on naturally white chickens.
- You will also need a hypodermic needle to inject the dye with.
3Inject the dye. Remove the eggs from the incubator and rub the small ends with a 95% alcohol solution to disinfect them, then allow them to dry.
- Use a 22 to 27 gauge needle to inject between 0.2 and 0.5 cc of your chosen needle into the egg, approximately one-half inch from the small end of the egg.
- Insert the needle just below the inner shell membrane and inject the dye slowly and carefully to avoid overflowing and to prevent it from harming the embryo.
4Replace the eggs in the incubator. After you have removed the needle, cover up the hole with a drop of melted paraffin wax to protect the embryo from infection. Return the eggs to the incubator, where they should continue to develop and hatch as normal.Ad
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- Be careful on what food coloring you buy, you don't want to harm, hurt or kill your hens.
- Do not dye your chicken red or orange. The color red signals blood to other chickens, and they will peck at the dyed one.
- Consider your chickens' health before attempting to dye them a different color.