What do people do with boy chicks?

[happyhens1972]

My boyfriend told me about this a while back. He'd read somewhere that technology is being developed that can actually determine the sex of the chick in the egg (I'm not sure at what stage of development this becomes effective). That way any unwanted males can be disposed of before they even hatch, so they're not ground up alive in a macerator. Apparently the public is beginning to find out exactly what happens to male chicks, and there's been some pressure on producers to find a more humane solution.

I agree with other posters that if you don't have a plan in place for any cockerels you hatch, don't let any eggs hatch!

I am very much for animal welfare and whilst the idea of a chick being ground up alive in a macerator SOUNDS horrific, it is not inhumane as the macerator is huge, spins at several thousand RPM and reduces the chicks to pulp in a nano second. They certainly wouldn't be aware of it. It's certainly more humane than the rest of the chick hatching and sorting process, where they are thrown around all over the place while being scooped out of hatch baskets, sexed and conveyor belted around the hatchery, possibly de-beaked, with some getting accidentally dropped, caught up in machinery, beaks trimmed too close and dying from shock etc.

As a public, we need to be careful when we insist on things that SEEM more humane but potentially are just more aesthetic, yet no better for the animal.

Unfortunately, slaughter is never nice. I have culled chicks with dispatching pliers, sharp scissors and CO2. The CO2 was the most aesthetic and the least emotionally difficult for me but I'm pretty convinced the scissors were the quickest and kindest, despite the mess, so that is how I will do it this time. We have resident buzzards so the bodies will go out in our paddock for the buzzards to snack on.

I have culled adult birds with a dispatcher, the broom handle method and decapitation with a butcher's knife.....again, the messiest method, the butcher's knife, was definitely the quickest and kindest. All methods had me sobbing like an idiot and shaking like a leaf but like you said, if you don't have a plan for the cockerels, don't hatch

 

[MizzClucker]

Half or more chicks hatched will be males, destined for the table, or pet food, or something. Very few cockerels can be raised to be flock roosters, for everyone's sake.
I don't think it's unreasonable to teach children where food comes from, and about the nice life your home raised chickens will have before becoming dinner.
Food doesn't grow in plastic in the grocery store!!!
My chickens go to a local poultry packing plant in the morning, and return shrink-wrapped and chilled that afternoon. It's a good choice for me, and might be for you. Or, send them off to someone else.
Cockerels are best raised as cockerels, not as cuddly pets, anyway, from a behavioral standpoint. My 'keepers' get named, they are special.
Mary

Yes I agree it’s good to teach them where food comes from and we have quite extensively. But eating an animal you’ve never met and eating one that you’ve raised and invested in is different. Especially to a little boy who won’t let me throw out our old broken toaster. True story, I have the old one sitting next to the new one because there were so many tears when he found it in the garbage.

I do agree with everything you are saying though, it is the better alternative to buying sexed chicks from a hatchery. Logically I knew more than half would be Roos, that’s how chromosomes work. Sending them to be butchered seems like the best alternative for us. Any advice when looking for a local butcher?

 

[BantyChooks]

I am very much for animal welfare and whilst the idea of a chick being ground up alive in a macerator SOUNDS horrific, it is not inhumane as the macerator is huge, spins at several thousand RPM and reduces the chicks to pulp in a nano second. They certainly wouldn't be aware of it. It's certainly more humane than the rest of the chick hatching and sorting process, where they are thrown around all over the place while being scooped out of hatch baskets, sexed and conveyor belted around the hatchery, possibly de-beaked, with some getting accidentally dropped, caught up in machinery, beaks trimmed too close and dying from shock etc.

As a public, we need to be careful when we insist on things that SEEM more humane but potentially are just more aesthetic, yet no better for the animal.

Unfortunately, slaughter is never nice. I have culled chicks with dispatching pliers, sharp scissors and CO2. The CO2 was the most aesthetic and the least emotionally difficult for me but I'm pretty convinced the scissors were the quickest and kindest, despite the mess, so that is how I will do it this time. We have resident buzzards so the bodies will go out in our paddock for the buzzards to snack on.

I have culled adult birds with a dispatcher, the broom handle method and decapitation with a butcher's knife.....again, the messiest method, the butcher's knife, was definitely the quickest and kindest. All methods had me sobbing like an idiot and shaking like a leaf but like you said, if you don't have a plan for the cockerels, don't hatch

Well put.

For me it is the completely illogical side that has issue with the maceration. I feel like they should at least get to live a shortish and happy life rather than off-with-their-heads at day one. No difference, I know---it just makes me feel a little better. I have had to cull chicks before and it was heartwrenching.

 

[MizzClucker]

I am very much for animal welfare and whilst the idea of a chick being ground up alive in a macerator SOUNDS horrific, it is not inhumane as the macerator is huge, spins at several thousand RPM and reduces the chicks to pulp in a nano second. They certainly wouldn't be aware of it. It's certainly more humane than the rest of the chick hatching and sorting process, where they are thrown around all over the place while being scooped out of hatch baskets, sexed and conveyor belted around the hatchery, possibly de-beaked, with some getting accidentally dropped, caught up in machinery, beaks trimmed too close and dying from shock etc.

As a public, we need to be careful when we insist on things that SEEM more humane but potentially are just more aesthetic, yet no better for the animal.

Unfortunately, slaughter is never nice. I have culled chicks with dispatching pliers, sharp scissors and CO2. The CO2 was the most aesthetic and the least emotionally difficult for me but I'm pretty convinced the scissors were the quickest and kindest, despite the mess, so that is how I will do it this time. We have resident buzzards so the bodies will go out in our paddock for the buzzards to snack on.

I have culled adult birds with a dispatcher, the broom handle method and decapitation with a butcher's knife.....again, the messiest method, the butcher's knife, was definitely the quickest and kindest. All methods had me sobbing like an idiot and shaking like a leaf but like you said, if you don't have a plan for the cockerels, don't hatch

But that’s the thing. By what I’m hearing people say “if you don’t have a plan for cockerels then don’t hatch” then this also means if you don’t have a plan for the cockerels then buy sexed chicks. I’m not convinced that this is any better. Maybe im missing something. Feel free to enlighten me as I’m fairly new to chickens.

 

[happyhens1972]

Yes I agree it’s good to teach them where food comes from and we have quite extensively. But eating an animal you’ve never met and eating one that you’ve raised and invested in is different. Especially to a little boy who won’t let me throw out our old broken toaster. True story, I have the old one sitting next to the new one because there were so many tears when he found it in the garbage.

You are absolutely right. I love my animals, they are pets, they are not dinner. I have goats, alpaca, rabbits and soon-to-be chickens. I have eaten the meat from all of these species but would never eat an animal I had raised. Not because of ethical reasons....there's nothing WRONG with it... but because my heart would not let me. I have culled a number of my pets, out of necessity, either due to illness, disease or, in the case of the cockerels, an inability to keep them safely or find homes for them. It has torn my heart out every time. The thought of putting them on a plate afterwards....god no, no more than I would eat my cat.

Well done for teaching your son where food comes from, it is important he understands the reality of it, but no, it is not NECESSARY to extend that lesson to him witnessing the butchering of his pets, which is clearly what they are to him.

 

[MizzClucker]

For the record, it’s not necessarily the mass killing of the male chicks that I find unethical but also how all of the birds are handled/treated in the hatchery industry. Laying hens, roosters, and chicks.

 

[lazy gardener]

Side question to all of this. I have recently become interested and slightly more educated in the ways of ethical eating/farming. Slowly but surely I am making some changes to my family’s food sources. This includes raising our own chickens for eggs. I’m not brave enough to raise anything to butcher, I just can’t do it. This year I will be buying chicks from local breeders straight run and from ethically approved places (only by my standards anyways). I am at a loss of what to do with the boys. Everyone around here seems to be giving away roosters. So I can a) butcher myself - not going to happen. b) send them to be butchered - this will be difficult as they are our pets or c) give them away where goodness knows what will happen.

What is an ethical byf owner to do? Support possibly unethical hatcheries or break hers and her 4yr olds heart by “getting rid” of the boys.

While you have issues with "breaking your heart, and that of your 4 year old", it's important to remember who's the parent. Children take their cues from the adults around them. If you're grossed out and upset, he will be also. What did the 4 year old do before there was a grocery store with neat little cello wrapped packages? He was probably out in the yard, helping Mom pluck the chicken for dinner. If you present the processing as a matter of fact part of animal farming, it will be accepted as a matter of fact part of life. My grand dtr was around and very interested in the processing when she was only 6 years old. She'd have been part of it at the age of 4 if I'd had birds then. She was intrigued with the internal anatomy, and not at all grossed out, even though she was present for incubating the eggs, and got to be involved in raising those little fluff balls.

 

[chicken4prez]

If you don't like the idea of killing roosters you can also put them on FaceBook or something. That's what I'm going to do for all my roosters because I don't like killing them.


Everyone has their own opinions though!

 

[Sunshine Flock]

I've really wrestled with this dilemma, long before getting chicks. Whether I hatch my own or acquire more through a feed store or breeder, the plight of the rooster is completely inescapable. More chicks inevitably leads to more roosters.

Which leaves only a few options: cull for food, re-home so they can be someone else's food (the likely scenario), or create a rooster flock.

I'm in my first year of raising chickens and have given serious thought to egg consumption and whether I can continue eating them if I'm unable to cull undesired birds. I won't let someone else do it on my behalf; i.e. buying eggs from a store, knowing roosters are being culled because of their low profit conversion value.

So I need to get this figured out. I consume chicken meat, so the same belief should hold true, which means either I learn to cull and process them for meat, or I stop poultry altogether.

 

[happyhens1972]

But that’s the thing. By what I’m hearing people say “if you don’t have a plan for cockerels then don’t hatch” then this also means if you don’t have a plan for the cockerels then buy sexed chicks. I’m not convinced that this is any better. Maybe im missing something. Feel free to enlighten me as I’m fairly new to chickens.

I think their point is not that the killing won't happen but that if someone, personally, is not willing to face that task, they should buy sexed chicks rather than end up weeks or months down the line with a bunch of cockerels they have no idea what to do with.

You are not missing something....no matter HOW pullets arrive on the planet, it will involve the death of (statistically) almost as many cockerels but some people have the stomach for sorting it themselves, some don't. Unsexed....your job. Sexed....somebody else's job. Cockerels still dead. Simple as that! Harsh, sad even, but true xxx