Stop The Cull!

It is time to end male chick culling, says Jane Howorth, founder of the British Hen Welfare Trust

- Jane Howorth

It is estimated that 3.2 billion chicks are killed globally every year because they cannot be used for egg production, but there are several companies looking to eradicate the need for this mass slaughter. For example, In Ovo, a Dutch poultry specialist, is developing a large scale solution for finding out the sex of a chick while it is still in the egg. Having detected new biological differences between males and females, In Ovo takes a drop of fluid extracted from a 0.4mm hole in the shell to sex the chick inside. The sexing can be carried out in a matter of seconds, making this a commercially sustainable solution to stop the cull of male chicks.