US egg industry kills 350m chicks a year, but new tech offers an alertnative About 350 million male chicks are killed by the US egg industry each year because, while the fuzzy little animals are incredibly cute, they won't lay eggs, so have little monetary value.
However, this longstanding practice is being revolutionised by innovative technology that allows hatcheries to identify male embryos within millions of fertilised eggs and repurpose them before they develop into chicks.
"We now have ethically produced eggs we can really feel good about," stated Jörg Hurlin, managing director of Agri Advanced Technologies, the German firm that spent over a decade creating the SUV-sized machine capable of sexing eggs.
Most consumers who opt for cage-free or free-range eggs are unaware that hundreds of millions of male chicks are culled each year, typically at just one day old.
The majority of these animals are disposed of through a process known as maceration, which employs spinning blades to instantly kill the chicks — a method the industy has long defended as the most humane option.
