I snapped these photos at a provincial market in Bohol a few months ago but forgot to post them. Aren’t they adorable? For some reason, I always assumed chicks were yellow in color, one of those stereotypes that probably started soon after birth, while watching cartoons on television. At any rate, in my single digits, I was fascinated (but now mortified) whenever I ran across multi-colored chicks at markets or heavily populated shopping areas. Turns out they were dyed green, blue or red — and meant to entice young brats to whine until their parents got them one. Yikes.
These chicks seemed to be naturally tan to dark brown in color. And they grow up to be tan or dark brown in color as well… I forgot the name the vendor had for them. But I just wanted to post these photos to remind myself that not all baby chickens are yellow. :)
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I love chicks and I love that your in a ‘marathon’ posting mode MM!!! Been loving reading ur recent posts =)
Is it any different from flower vendors who artificially change the colors of the flowers they sell? Back home, I see birds colored artificially so vendors can sell them. I don’t see the logic of it because kids know that these colors are fake.
I remember when we live back home,when Dara(auntie) go to market brought home those dyed birds.My then young kids love them,but they knew that they have to let them go.Love,Love, your posting of anything and everything not just food!! Fascinating!! Phenomenal !! barrowing fancy words fr. my 4 yr.old grandbaby.Thanks MM you are my window of the world.
haha, me too! I thought chicks were always yellow!
I remember the time my sister bought a sparrow (maya?) dyed bright blue for her seven year old son. I spent 30 minutes talking to him, trying to convince him to let the bird go, since it would only die. Finally he opened the cage. Then tears fell, he bawled and I had to face an irate sister. PS. He also cried when his pet hen died of old age.
a few years back, we bought three yellow chicks to put among the easter eggs hidden in my mom’s garden, for my nephews and niece. since they kids couldn’t take care of them, we decided to bring them home, we put them in the backyard, where they promptly ate up all the herbs and veggies, and grew very fat very fast. we never named them, and i never went to see them in the backyard, otherwise, i knew we;d never be able to cook them. in a few months, we had the tastiest tinolang manok. (my son says tht’s because they were pre-seasoned by all the herbs they ate!). about a week later, my nephew asked how the chicks were doing. we had to tell them the chicls all flew away to go back home, since their mom had been looking for them ;-)
They look so soft and fluffy, but chickens aren’t too far off the genetic chart from dinosaurs. Are you planning on expanding into roast chickens soon MM?
They indeed look adorable! I thought one of the chicks in the first pic is colored black. Was it a dark brown?
Did you know these vendors also sell spiders ? Yun pang sabong – i kid you not. I bought several myself but had to throw them out coz the wife was creeped. But on topic – i thought all leghorns were born yellow.
I enjoy that ‘unimpressed’ look on their little faces.
I agree with Ellen from Australia regarding MM’s “marathon” posting mode. Keep it up MM. I am enjoying it. I never knew the chicks were dyed. What one would do to market their goods. I guess it works.
Saw chicks as the title of today’s post before the picture.
For a moment I thought, hmmmm, what is MM up to this time? I have been listening to young folks too much that I associate chicks not with something yellow and furry but something else, so I thought egad, MM! did silly lolo cast some influence on you ? and then I saw the baby chicken, the real chicks.
Now we are the ones who are struggling to keep up with Mm’s posts, but i’m liking it back to normal.
“morbid” question, but are chicks edible? i mean if we can eat balut, and chicken, what about the in-between? kind of like cuchinillo for pigs. (and portion size don’t matter. they eat guinea pigs-cuy in peru, and they’re almost the same size as a chick)
bernice, day-old chicks, here, skewered and a horrific nuclear orange to boot. I have never eaten young chicks, but I guess they are food for some.
manila zoo feeds chicks like these to the residents in the reptile house… we went there during feeding time yesterday… it was a bit of a shock!
isabel, I guess the fresher the better. Yowks. I am so glad I am not low on the food chain. It would be kinda cool if dinosaurs still roamed Manila and went sniffing about munching on humans for midday snacks. They would have to eat several dozen people to feel full. It would be a very effective way of controlling the size of the population… :)
our chickens – native, sunshine and another variety – all have multi-colored chicks ranging from light brown to black. The hens lay multi-colored eggs too – the darker colored hens lay the darker shade of brown eggs. We have so much fresh eggs right now my mom is just giving them away. :))
Grew up in a household that had a poultry in the backyard – so am genetically coded to love these barnyard folk from incubating to hatching and loving tinolang manok! Other respondent said – MM you are our window to the world – yup!
@Isabel : nice name by the way.
Day old chicks are a common food staple in most zoos. They are usually from hatcheries that then send the female chicks (chick chicks?) to egg farms. The male chicks are considered surplus so are very economical for zoos to use, and because they are only a day old, the yolk hasn’t been reabsorbed yet so it’s also very nutritious.
What’s amazing is how they can differentiate the sexes at that age!
My saffer crew mate grew up eating supermarket food, it was a shock for her when I took her shopping in Italy that the chickens had head and feet hahaha.
So I had to describe to her from eggs to chicks to chicken cacciatore :-)
whoa! you learn something new everyday! :)
thanks for sharing MM. my first time to see chicks with light to dark brown color… :)
MM, you seem to be curious about how to raise them :)
If my blog doesn’t help you much, I’d be glad to have chicken talk with you on how to pasture them, to give you clean and tasty chickens on your table.
Now I’m disturbed knowing that day old chicks are used to be fed in zoos….