Posted on 04/19/2025 10:16:23 PM PDT by Red Badger
Every spring, I’d eagerly await my special package — a box that arrived peeping. Inside were just-hatched chicks, still egg-shaped and covered in down.
I would raise the chicks in my home office. During our first month together, there was always a chick or two in my sweater, on my shoulder or perching atop my head. They considered me their mother.
Later, when they moved outside to a coop, they ranged freely over the eight acres my husband and I own in rural New Hampshire. Whenever they caught sight of me, they would greet me as if I were a member of the Beatles, racing toward me with wings outstretched. When they began to lay eggs, I was elated. I had gotten the hens to keep me company, but nothing tastes better than an egg from a free-range chicken you know personally. I’ve been a vegetarian since 1980, so I felt great about accepting this gift from my sweet little flock, which I called the Ladies.
I had no idea that while the Ladies enjoyed shelter and sunshine, fresh bugs and freedom, their newborn brothers faced a gruesome fate shared by 6.5 billion male chicks around the world each year. These male birds can’t lay eggs but also aren’t raised for meat. Because they come from egg-laying breeds, they don’t grow big or fast enough to be used for food. So they are ground up alive or gassed to death.
The practice is especially egregious because unlike many baby mammals and songbirds, which are born blind, naked and helpless, newborn chicks are capable little creatures. Within hours of hatching, they are standing, running and successfully finding food. When they are thrown into the grinder or gasser at 1-day old, these male chicks are alert and aware.
Unwittingly, I was complicit in this monstrosity.
The good news is that a new technology can help end it. Called in ovo sexing, it determines the sex of the chick embryo long before it hatches, allowing the producers to get rid of the male eggs and hatch only the females. Eggs from in ovo sexed hens have been available in some European countries since 2018 and now make up about 20 percent of Europe’s market, driven in large part by bans on chick culling in several countries, including Germany and France. Come summer, the first such eggs are due to become available in U.S. supermarkets.
It’s a breakthrough that could be one of the greatest gains in animal welfare of the century. But we consumers have to make it happen.
There are different ways to do in ovo sexing. Some machines can determine the sex of the chicken embryos by analyzing a small sample of the contents of the egg, rather like prenatal embryo testing for humans. Others use wavelengths of light to penetrate the egg and reveal colors that correlate with sex. The investment in this technology isn’t cheap, but it’s partly offset by savings: It eliminates the cost (estimated at $500 million) of incubating eggs that will never turn into laying hens for the market and of killing and disposing of slain chicks.
Some hatcheries may be put off by the initial cost of installing the new technology. Consumers would have to pay perhaps one to three pennies extra per egg. (But that’s nothing compared with recent increases in egg prices).
At least three U.S. companies — Kipster, NestFresh and Happy Egg — are working to offer supermarket eggs that make use of the technology. NestFresh, which specializes in humanely free-range and pasture-raised hens, appears to be the farthest along, with plans to offer the eggs in stores this summer under a Humanely Hatched label.
More companies could follow — but only under public pressure.
Consumer demand for more humane treatment of farm animals has already propelled important changes in the food industry, from cage-free eggs in supermarkets to plant-based burgers in restaurants. That’s why organizations like the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals are urging consumers who buy eggs to purchase them from companies that use in ovo testing. Or you can write the company producing the egg brand you usually buy, urging it to adopt the new technology. Visit your local grocery store; tell the manager you want to spare male chicks from culling — and that you will back your conviction with your dollars. If you raise chickens at home, call the hatchery where you get your chicks to voice your preference.
Scientists are now documenting what backyard chicken enthusiasts already knew: Far from being mean, dirty and stupid, chickens are affectionate, clean and smart. They can recognize individuals by their faces, both avian and human. They can alert flock mates to the presence of food and danger — specifying in their call whether a treat is particularly delicious and whether the predator is coming by land or air. A recent study found that roosters may be able to pass the mirror test, which many psychologists consider a sign of self-awareness.
Chickens also have distinct personalities. Some are remarkably courageous, like my neighbor’s rooster, who chased a fox from his flock into the woods. Others are clever and affectionate, like a rooster who learned to use the doorknob to let himself into the house — where he would often bring his favorite person gifts, like bits of plumbing he’d found in the garage.
High supermarket prices have consumers hyperfocused on the cost of eggs. But as adorable spring chicks remind us, chickens are not just food. We need to consider the real cost of eggs not just to our wallets but also to the lives of these thinking, feeling creatures.
*************************************************************
Sy Montgomery is the author of “What the Chicken Knows” and other books on animals.
Duck meat is generally considered to have a richer, more flavorful profile compared to chicken. It is higher in fat, which contributes to its dense and hearty texture. Duck meat is also higher in vitamins, particularly iron and copper, and has a slightly lower cholesterol and sodium content compared to chicken.
could very well still be used for Sea Food Bait!!
At least they would be used then thrown into the dump.
Because they are a layer breed, and breeds meant for the table are a better choice to raise to maturity.
Several reasons.
Roosters will fight each other making a bloody mess.
Roosters hog all the food.
Free range roosters make tough meat.
Roosters crow all day and a good part of the night. You don’t want a chorus.
Roosters will attack YOU....................
Maybe she is attempting to hatch her egg-shaped head???
They still do all this when castrated? I’ve had capon many times when I was young, my mother would stuff them with different stuffings, roast them and they were quite good. Don’t see it around anymore, maybe too much trouble like you say, but someone was doing it. Too bad, seems like a waste to me.
Those like this Author would have a complete meltdown if they looked into the Dairy industry...
Sacrifice is just a fact of reality when it comes to survival of the fittest. Some feelings are going to be hurt, no way around it.
Went to a slaughterhouse as a kid. It was gruesome and fascinating at the same time................
Duck is among my favorite meats. Just delicious. My mother would make roast duck every now and then, and my wife loved it too. When we were newlyweds, my wife got a recipe from my mother for duck with an orange sauce, and made two roast ducks. I ate one, and half of the second one along with other dishes she made. She mostly just stared at me, amazed to see a human eat so much. The half that was left was more than enough for her.
Ducks do carry mites. Lake swimmers get the mites from ducks landing on the lake.
Yeah. I realized that after posting. I meant to list only fleas and ticks.
I lullaby my old hens with stories of a nice hot bath with noodles when they get too old to lay eggs.
I smell hypocrisy. Does this do-gooder support dismembering a live human being in his or hers mother’s womb?
The Chicken Of Tomorrow comes to mind.
https://youtu.be/1G0stojwYjI?si=ff7gI0mSsg3v7AUT
So much for the future..........
That’s nice. Do they get relaxed before you bring down the axe?
As Ranchers slaughtering was just part of life. We used to go and get these male Calves from the dairies for free and wet nurse/range feed them for a year and then turn them into some of the best most tender Jerky available. Better than them just being destroyed right away as the industry standard.
But if you did this on a market sized scale the Beef industry would lobby to have laws passed against it...
***allowing the producers to get rid of the male eggs and hatch only the females.***
Say what? When I worked in a chicken hatchery, male chicks were desired by people who raise chickens for meat. Females were wanted for laying hens.
Interesting. I started raising chickens several years ago after watching a show about WWII rationing and seeing how much better off families would be with their own chickens and gardens.
This year’s batch of chicks will be from a dual purpose breed so we plan to raise the pullets and feed out the roo’s. We have a smaller family now so might get by with smaller meat birds.
Hopefully I can pick out a good roo to accompany the girls and maybe raise our own
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.