Pre-sexed chicken eggs

At the risk of being controversial then it’s alright to kill millions of growing embryos but not a full time chick?
Sounds like an ongoing controversy about ................................... !
 
I knew they were culled, but live shredding ???????????? :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:
 
Hen-Gen said:
At the risk of being controversial then it’s alright to kill millions of growing embryos but not a full time chick?
Sounds like an ongoing controversy about ................................... !
Click to expand...

About what Hen Gen? Abortion maybe? I doubt the Pope will have any problem with this one!
It was never possible before and now it is. Why hatch them by the millions to shred if its not necessary?
Progress is good - no?
Or is it an erosion of traditional stockmanship grit? Big poultry industry has not been traditional for a very long time.
I'm sure there will also be a market for high quality, traditionally reared and expensive (worth every penny) birds indefinitely as well - not on a scale where sexing eggs would be commercially on the cards even if desirable. I wish all meat and eggs were produced like that and were a rare treat rather than the mainstay of plastic wrapped sandwiches and microwave korma (at that quality draining discount price we all seem to love) but as that shows no sign of abating .......
 
Hen-Gen said:
At the risk of being controversial then it’s alright to kill millions of growing embryos but not a full time chick?
Sounds like an ongoing controversy about ................................... !
Click to expand...

Well, yes, I think that is OK, and only what has always happened when a keeper runs a cockerel with some hens, then eats their freshly fertilised eggs. Compared with the alternative of mincing up live chicks, removing fertilised male eggs is a brilliant idea. From a commercial point of view, a the male eggs would be useable as food at that stage and a lot of space, equipment and energy would also be saved if there was only the need to power half the incubator space, and no need to sex and separate the male chicks, to buy the machines to macerate them, or to deal with the bodies.
 
Marigold said:
Hen-Gen said:
At the risk of being controversial then it’s alright to kill millions of growing embryos but not a full time chick?
Sounds like an ongoing controversy about ................................... !
Click to expand...

Well, yes, I think that is OK, and only what has always happened when a keeper runs a cockerel with some hens, then eats their freshly fertilised eggs.
Click to expand...

Which is what I used to do ....
 
Oh yeah, don’t get me wrong, I eat fertilised eggs too. What I meant was that I can’t see anything wrong with putting day old male chicks into a shredder for pet food so long as the end is quick. But I take the point about using less energy if the new technology is applied.
I guess this new sexing technology is great if it’s cheap enough for the industry to use.
In fact when I do Lavender Araucana x Dominique matings which gives chicks that are sexable at hatching the males are decapitated with darning scissors.
 
The only reason for the producers needing to put a few pence (or cents) on the price of a box of eggs must be to recoup the development cost. After that it should be a huge saving.
Anyone who breeds hens (for eggs or meat or fine birds) has that chore to do - sooner or later - completely unavoidable. Even us who buy hens and don't breed are just passing the task to someone else. I'm not saying there is anything 'wrong' with it - except - for the big companies that can now avoid showing chicks the light of day then disposing of half then I would not think it OK for them to keep doing it when there is an option. Difference with this is it makes economic sense too and so, becoming possible, has happened.
Pet food is nonsense - there are not enough reptiles out there! - a few whole as raptor and snake food maybe. The rest fertiliser? Why not? - that's not my point.
 
A new development to the problem of unwanted male chicks.
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/jan/31/good-vibrations-sound-waves-eggs-ethical-slaughter-male-chicks
 
How on earth did someone figure that one out?! A faulty smoke alarm in the incubator room maybe?
The comment about them being exploited in industry is right enough - be them layers of any kind. How odd that they lay eggs but retain the male plumage etc! I will have to start playing hardcore techno-rave in the run and see if Linden gets in the mood.
 
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