Easter Chicks

One of the most diabolically successful marketing schemes ever devised by the mind of man is dyeing baby chickens brilliant colors and placing them near the check-out stand where little kids can see them and beg for them in the days before Easter.  Few parents (and no grandparents) could refuse their little monsters, so money changes hands and the baby chick heads home along with that week’s groceries. 

It is a trip that almost always ends in disaster.

Some chicks never make it to the house.  Kids three years old and younger tend to squeeze them too hard, they get stepped upon or fall prey to the family cat.  About the best an Easter chick can hope for is to live long enough to end up in the family skillet.

Some chicks are dyed while still in the egg – growers inject food coloring into the egg (Directions Here) at about 17 days, plug the hole with wax and return the egg to the incubator.  Others are sprayed with food dye shortly after they hatch.  Poultry farmers say neither way hurts the chick.

Whichever way they got their brilliant color, it – and that cute fuzzy look - only lasts for a couple weeks.  Adult feathers are white, and once they begin to come in the chick is no longer cute – in fact they might be described as downright ugly.

Some states and municipalities have outlawed the sale of colored Easter chicks, but it is still perfectly legal in others.  You can even order them on line.  One of this year’s on-line vendors (no longer available, maybe next year) is right up the road in Cleveland, Texas.