can you dye your chickens feathers

[Serama girl15]

I read that you can dye your chickens feathers using coolaid or food coloring will it harm your chicken if you use it ? I know you can't use red

 

[Ridgerunner]

Wow! Dyeing chicken feathers! They are yours and you can do anything you want with them for whatever reason. As long as you rinse any sugar from the cool-aid out and they don’t get a chill from being wet, it should not harm them. Many hatcheries will put a spot of food coloring on some of the chicks before they ship to identify them if you ask for that service.

 

[RichnSteph]

A friend put a small amount of red food coloring into the rinse water for her white Silky when she had to bathe it. Turned the darn thing the cutest shade of pink!

 

[yellowchicks]

hmmm...my 4 white Leghorns are named Orange, Yellow, Blue, and Green. You have just given me some interesting ideas to help them live up to their names.

 

[aart]

I tried dying one of my hens to differentiate her from her sister.
Thought blukote would work, nope was gone quickly, within days, leaving a very very faint stain.
Next tried food coloring, right from the bottle...that worked a bit better, but still faded in time...not sure I can even see it anymore but haven't looked closely in a while.
Their feathers repel moisture, so hard to truly 'dye' them.