What do large hatcheries do with extra chicks?

[AmeraucanaHank]

Just heard a story on the radio about 'them' genetically engineering for all female hatches.

Wow, really? Never heard that one before.

 

[NatJ]

Wow, really? Never heard that one before.

I see someone just provided a link to a thread talking about it.

Short form, it's a way to kill male embryos at some stage of incubation, before they hatch.
So the ones that HATCH are all females.

It would save hatcheries the bother of sexing chicks at hatch, and it may free up incubator space if they do it early enough. If it happens before they can feel pain, that could be better from a welfare perspective. Other than that, I think the main "benefit" is that the males die before they are cute and fluffy, and the hatcheries can say "we don't kill male chicks" (i.e. PR benefits.)

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I was thinking about big time hatcheries with tons of breeds like McMurray. They guarantee shipments of day old chicks of several breeds. What do they do with extra chicks that are not sold? Seems like keeping them would be more costly to the business as far as space and feed. I'm sure some go to renewing breeding stock, but the others? Do they get processed as chicks? Many of the breeds they sell aren't worth anything for meat so I'm sure they aren't raised for butchering. And for that matter, where do retired breeders go? Also processed for miscellaneous products?

And for small time breeders, especially those selling sex-linked chicks... What do you do with males you don't sell?

Most do get culled as chicks. Some are sold in male-only orders and some are sent to wildlife rehabs as raptor food, but there’s simply too many male chicks for that to happen to all of them.

 

[Tervuren]

Murray McMurray culls the extra male chicks. In older livestreams on facebook the owner (Tom) mentions that they're gassed and used for feeding raptors. I believe this livestream is from 2020 or 2021 if you want to go digging for it.

 

[Ponyiqandhens2]

I've also heard of some selling their extras as feed either as frozen chicks or even processed for dog food and other reasons. Just don't know how true or common this practice is.

Realistically zoos need live or frozen whole foods and they serve a purpose. In some parts of the country a horse that needs to be euthanized can be shot ( cant use euthasol as it haspentobarbital which can cause harm in anything to that eats it...) to be fed to big cats,wolves etc at zoos and sanctuaries..

 

[Iluveggers]

Sad but at least their not being tossed in the trash as garbage. I prefer a no-waste solution like that.

 

[ChickNanny13]

I too read an article, not the one provided, about how some country has engineered a machine (sort of like an Xray) to sort out the eggs prior to incutbating.

https://www.poultrynews.co.uk/produ...hnology-is-transforming-the-egg-industry.html

https://www.connexionfrance.com/art...ts-egg-embryo-sex-to-save-killing-male-chicks

https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/spectroscopy-allows-in-egg-chicken-sexing-/2500274.article

https://physicsworld.com/a/laser-spectroscopy-determines-sex-of-a-chicken-egg/

 

[NatJ]

I too read an article, not the one provided, about how some country has engineered a machine (sort of like an Xray) to sort out the eggs prior to incutbating.

https://www.poultrynews.co.uk/produ...hnology-is-transforming-the-egg-industry.html

https://www.connexionfrance.com/art...ts-egg-embryo-sex-to-save-killing-male-chicks

https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/spectroscopy-allows-in-egg-chicken-sexing-/2500274.article

https://physicsworld.com/a/laser-spectroscopy-determines-sex-of-a-chicken-egg/

Those articles talk about sexing before hatch, but not before incubating.

The articles are talking about several different methods, but all require the eggs to be incubated for some amount of time first. Day 13 was the latest I saw, day 9 was mentioned several times, and day 3 was the earliest I saw mentioned (also mentioned several times).

Several of the articles were talking about making a hole in the egg, so they could take a sample of fluid from the egg to test. One article also compared it with a method that uses candling to detect pigment in the embryo, which works on specially-bred chicks that have a sexlinked trait (so males vs females have different amounts of pigment.)

 

[MountainMarans2012]

Those articles talk about sexing before hatch, but not before incubating.

The articles are talking about several different methods, but all require the eggs to be incubated for some amount of time first. Day 13 was the latest I saw, day 9 was mentioned several times, and day 3 was the earliest I saw mentioned (also mentioned several times).

Several of the articles were talking about making a hole in the egg, so they could take a sample of fluid from the egg to test. One article also compared it with a method that uses candling to detect pigment in the embryo, which works on specially-bred chicks that have a sexlinked trait (so males vs females have different amounts of pigment.)

My concern with destroying male chick eggs is we might be changing the future of poultry. If all Hatcheries go this route and use these techniques to only allow pullets to hatch this would be a genius way to get more customers since eventually there won't be any Roosters for home growers to buy to use as breeders to hatch their own.
All the independent Breeders will be ones with Roosters not the Hatcheries.
I've been telling folks to keep some Roosters around just in case this does happen in the Hatcheries.

 

[MountainMarans2012]

I too read an article, not the one provided, about how some country has engineered a machine (sort of like an Xray) to sort out the eggs prior to incutbating.

https://www.poultrynews.co.uk/produ...hnology-is-transforming-the-egg-industry.html

https://www.connexionfrance.com/art...ts-egg-embryo-sex-to-save-killing-male-chicks

https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/spectroscopy-allows-in-egg-chicken-sexing-/2500274.article

https://physicsworld.com/a/laser-spectroscopy-determines-sex-of-a-chicken-e