What happens to male chicks at hatcheries?

[bayareapilot]

Don't know why the question hadn't occurred to me before but I started wondering what happens to male chicks at hatcheries? I wanted to ask here because internet searches are suggesting some fairly awful scenarios for chicks deemed to be male - and thought if I asked here I'd get the unvarnished truth one way or another.

 

[SilverBirds]

They are either sexed as males and bought, or sold as straight runs I believe.

 

[DobieLover]

Some are intentionally purchased for flock leaders.
More than some are mixed in with supposed 50/50 Straight Run batches of chicks.
Lots are sold to raise for meat.
All this is far better than what happens to males hatched into the commercial egg laying factories. I watched a video of the workers sexing the day olds. The pullets were dropped unceremoniously on a conveyor belt and the cockerels were dropped into a big funnel that fed them into a grinder where they were fed back to the laying hens in the feed.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Sold as st run, remaining are sold as sexed males and male specialties. The rest are probably culled

 

[SilverBirds]

Now, in the egg production is where it is bad. If a baby chick is sexed as a male it is culled. Sometimes by cruel and inhumane.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Sold as st run, remaining are sold as sexed males and male specialties. The rest are probably culled

Oh, forgot some hatcheries use them as packing peanuts too.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

They are made into "chicken meal" which is used in many dog foods.

 

[Tonyroo]

I would think you can call a hatchery and pose that question to see what they really do with them. Straight from the horse's mouth sorta speak.