It’s estimated that only 1 in 10 Americans know the sad reality of how male chicks are typically treated in the egg industry. Author and animal advocate Sy Montgomery described herself as being “horrified” when she found out.
What many don’t know is that until recently, all egg production in the U.S. involved the routine killing of half of the chicks hatched in hatcheries, simply because those chicks were male and would not grow up to lay eggs like the females. This practice is commonly referred to by the industry as male chick culling — the killing of male chicks by grinding or gassing them alive.
After decades of this practice, 2025 brought about historic progress as American egg shoppers were able to buy the first eggs produced without male chick culling. These better-hatched eggs use a process called in-ovo sexing that identifies which chicken embryos are male and which are female while still in the eggs, so the hatchery can choose to continue incubating only the females.
A pivotal year to ending male chick culling, 2025 also saw the culmination of years of work behind the scenes from:
- Hatcheries — those that hatch and sell female chicks to egg brands to become their laying hens — that installed in-ovo sexing machines and made better-hatched eggs possible for higher-welfare egg brands.
- Egg brands, like NestFresh, which released the first better-hatched eggs to U.S. shoppers last summer and Kipster, who is transitioning their eggs to be 100% better-hatched by the end of this year. We also commend Vital Farms for adopting in-ovo sexing at their primary hatchery and Sauder’s Eggs, which plans to implement in-ovo sexing for their free range and pasture-raised flocks starting in August 2026. Importantly, these brands are also Certified Humane®, meaning that they are focused on the welfare of male chicks and raise their hens to higher welfare standards, too.
- Companies who source eggs for their products, like pet food brand Evermore, made their desire clear for the most humane ingredients possible to their suppliers. Evermore recently became the first pet food company to commit to using fully better-hatched eggs!
What’s next?
Change is here, and it must continue. What was once considered a grim reality in egg production is now an opportunity to make a gut-wrenching animal welfare issue a relic of the past.
We’re committed to helping to end male chick culling for good, working with hatcheries to scale up the potential for in-ovo sexing across the U.S., especially for smaller brands and farms and collaborating with more egg companies who want to implement in-ovo sexing to provide their customers with these better-hatched options. We hope to hear from more companies who source eggs as ingredients and can make their demand for these eggs clear and promise to buy these eggs instead of eggs produced by killing male chicks.
You can get involved, too! Choose these more humanely hatched eggs whenever possible to show the egg industry that you support the transition away from male chick culling. Learn where to find NestFresh’s Humanely Hatched™ eggs and when you can expect to see labeled eggs from Kipster in stores on our Ending Male Chick Culling resource page.
For updates on new companies getting involved in this effort, join our Factory Farming Task Force.
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