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Germany To Make Culling Of Male Chicks In Meat Industry Illegal From 2022
https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/germany-to-make-culling-of-male-chicks-in-meat-industr ^ | | May 21, 2021 | Rachael Funnell

Posted on 05/21/2021 11:31:14 AM PDT by Red Badger

Germany has passed legislation that makes the culling of male chicks in the meat industry illegal from January 1, 2022. This makes Germany the first country to ban the mass slaughter of chicks by law.

The meat industry utilizes the products of chickens in two key approaches. One is to raise boiler chickens, females that will gain weight quickly and therefore are considered economically valuable for their meat. The others are egg layers, bred to churn out as many eggs as they can before being recategorized as soup chickens. It’s a system that calls for a lot of females with males only serving the purpose of fertilizing eggs. As such, male chickens are routinely culled shortly after hatching as they aren’t considered an economically viable choice.

In traditional chicken farming, when it comes to the male chicks, an approach to repurpose the young animals into low-quality feed has seen them shredded en masse in previous years. Germany is now leading the way out of this ethically questionable practice, making it illegal to carry out the mass culling of male chicks from next year.

Germany's Federal Administrative Court ruled in 2019 that animal welfare concerns outweighed the economic interests of the industry. Farmers will now have to use an innovative technology that can prevent male chicks from being born by sexing developing chicken eggs. The technique cuts a tiny hole in the shell of developing eggs and tests it for sex-dependent hormones. This way, developing males can be destroyed long before hatching, ending the unethical shredding practice that typically processes around 43 million chicks per year in Germany.


TOPICS: Agriculture; Business/Economy; Food; Pets/Animals
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To: Captainpaintball

Hens develop faster. And mature rooster meat is stringy with a slightly gamey taste. You have to put them in a slow cooker with stew.


41 posted on 05/21/2021 12:35:36 PM PDT by neefer (Because you can't starve us out and you can't make us run.)
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To: Red Badger
Such an easy problem to solve. Take the unwanted male chicks and drop them in the mail slot of the nearest government building. Let them raise them or put them up for adoption.

That or leave them out for the foxes and hawks.

42 posted on 05/21/2021 12:39:16 PM PDT by T.B. Yoits
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To: poinq

We have used some roosters for meat, but I can’t say if I’ve had one. We do get some roosters with our laying hens now and then, and we’ll keep them as they can help keep the girls in line.

I don’t remember the roosters being any worse, but by the time it got to my plate, I didn’t know which was a rooster or a hen.

We quit using the laying breeds for meat as there’s just not enough meat and the meat is just not as good from the laying breeds to make it worth the trouble, so we don’t any more.

I suppose the age of the birds could have something to do with the meat not being as good. We keep our layers for two years before rotating them out, so I’ve only had layers that old.

So now we only eat the broilers, which have to be slaughtered at 8 - 12 weeks. I’ve never had a 12 week old layer to compare the flavor.


43 posted on 05/21/2021 12:40:07 PM PDT by Jotmo (Whoever said, "The pen is mightier than the sword." has clearly never been stabbed to death.)
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To: Jotmo

We haven’t gotten them since because they’re more expensive to buy and raise than a store bought bird. We did let ours go a week or two long because of not thinking about hunting season Coming along at harvest processing time and if we did it again, we’d process them in two batches, males one day and females a week later. I like a 4lb bird but our choices were 3lb hen and 4lb rooster or 4lb hen — 5 lb rooster. I think we ended up with 5.5-6lb roosters since we ran late and they were a little tough. We got brown meat birds — red ranger type birds too though. Good thing I suppose though because you can’t go a couple of weeks over on the Cornish Cross. They’d all drop dead by then.

I should have taken a video of my plucker. Not sure I even got a picture. I took the gear box off my finish mower, ran it in reverse to slow it down and bolted a round piece of thick aluminum to the 16” pulley and had plucker fingers mounted into the plate(The moving/spinning part). Had most of a 55 gallon plastic drum, with plucker fingers facing in, mounted stationary. It ran off of the PTO and 800rpm on the engine was just the right plucking speed. Cleaned them up quick and only broke one leg out of 25 birds. I raised the birds when they were 1 day old until they got feathered out and then brought them to my neighbor’s because he had an 8 foot tall dog kennel. When processing day came, I just drove my chicken plucker to his place.

There was one meat bird hen who had different markings and the only bird I found with similar markings is the Buckeye dual purpose breed. Daughter said she’s pretty, we can’t kill her so I stuck her in with our laying hens. She never did fit in personality-wise but she started laying eggs, 2 every 3 days or so. Big pinkish brown eggs. She grew just as fast as the meat birds, kept eating like one but never got oversized. Weird. Coons finally got them all one night. I got the coons though.


44 posted on 05/21/2021 12:44:42 PM PDT by Pollard
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To: Red Badger
Farmers will now have to use an innovative technology that can prevent male chicks from being born by sexing developing chicken eggs.

That will eliminate one of the dirtiest jobs in the poultry industry. Sexing a chick involves probing its gastrointestinal tract, but I won't go into detail because FR is a G-rated site.

45 posted on 05/21/2021 12:51:08 PM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: Red Badger

This is fine and dandy, but do they still allow abortions based on the gender of the child?


46 posted on 05/21/2021 12:51:20 PM PDT by Rusty0604 (" When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat." -Ronald Reagan)
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To: 9YearLurker

A dingbat on tv once said she doesn’t eat eggs because they’re aborted chickens.


47 posted on 05/21/2021 12:51:27 PM PDT by bgill
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To: Renfrew

Pretty much. They will kill them before they are born instead...

Not really sure what is being saved here..


48 posted on 05/21/2021 12:54:00 PM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: DIRTYSECRET

Yes. If you want it fertilized to make a chick, you’ll need a rooster.

We have designer humans so why not take that technology to livestock. Of course, we’ll be paying more for it.


49 posted on 05/21/2021 12:54:23 PM PDT by bgill
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To: dpetty121263

They can legalize cockfighting, then there will be a market for roosters 🐓


50 posted on 05/21/2021 12:59:33 PM PDT by Greg123456 (Better to meet a rabid dog than a democrat)
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To: DIRTYSECRET

This won’t affect broader hens as without a male rooster around they lay unfertile eggs which are male and female but they never get past the yoke stage so it matters not and those eggs meant for consumption will remain unsexed there is no need to. Only breeder chickens who have a rooster for reproduction need the eggs sexed.

Yes chickens will get broody and lay without a rooster around just like human females have periods with or without a man in the house. Chickens produce an ova every day to two days and that becomes an egg regardless of if it is joined with male chicken sperm.


51 posted on 05/21/2021 1:00:25 PM PDT by JD_UTDallas ("Veni Vidi Vici" )
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To: Red Badger

I worked in the chicken hatchery industry years ago. Males were not discarded unless they were deformed culls. All were kept and many growers preferred males as they grew faster.

At many of the farm stores chicks are for sale. often the “straight run” are males after the females have been taken out.

If you want laying chicks you chose “pullets”. If you want fertilized eggs you chose a few “straight run” to go with your “Pullets” and there will be enough males in it to fertilize the eggs. Get too many males and they will fight each other.


52 posted on 05/21/2021 1:03:37 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar ((Democrats have declared us to be THE OBSOLETE MAN in the Twilight Zone.))
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To: neefer

Send it to Asia, or Africa. They never even had chicken over there. What are these guys doing? Do I have to think of EVERYTHING?


53 posted on 05/21/2021 1:03:54 PM PDT by Captainpaintball
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To: Red Badger

Cheep trick


54 posted on 05/21/2021 1:04:02 PM PDT by kanawa ((Securing the 2022/2024 elections is of paramount importance.))
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To: DIRTYSECRET

Yes the will still lay eggs, but they will be unfertilized.


55 posted on 05/21/2021 1:04:55 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar ((Democrats have declared us to be THE OBSOLETE MAN in the Twilight Zone.))
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To: bgill

Maybe they could arrange a rescue to ship some of those male chicks over here as pets.


56 posted on 05/21/2021 1:07:11 PM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: Red Badger

AW, BULL!

Hey I made a funny! Most of the beef for sale is from steers, castrated bulls.

And I thought Europeans liked Capons! Castrated roosters.


57 posted on 05/21/2021 1:09:16 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar ((Democrats have declared us to be THE OBSOLETE MAN in the Twilight Zone.))
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To: Gen.Blather

***estrogen required to bring a chicken to the optimum weight in the shortest time.***

Years ago US feeders used Sodium Arsenate to enhance growth in chickens. It is a derivative of arsenic. I remember seeing it on the ingredients label on chicken feed. I believe it is no longer allowed.


58 posted on 05/21/2021 1:15:56 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar ((Democrats have declared us to be THE OBSOLETE MAN in the Twilight Zone.))
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To: Fiji Hill

You just pick up the chick, aim it’s butt at a waste can and giver a quick squeeze. It will squirt poop. Then look for some type of formation in it’s butt hole.

We had a crew of Japanese sexers come in and do the work for us. They tried to show me what to look for but I never could catch on.


59 posted on 05/21/2021 1:22:10 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar ((Democrats have declared us to be THE OBSOLETE MAN in the Twilight Zone.))
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To: Greg123456

In Mexico it’s legal...


60 posted on 05/21/2021 1:25:07 PM PDT by dpetty121263
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