The cruel cost of doing business.
Once chicks are hatched, they are put onto a moving conveyor belt where they are sorted; males from females. If they are considered to be healthy, the female chicks will be transferred to a site where they will be grown to a specific size before being moved to an egg laying facility. This could be cage, barn or free-range.
So even for the female chicks, it’s a game of ‘Russian Roulette’ when it comes to the quality of life they will ultimately be afforded. Most of them will be killed at just 18 months old when they are ‘spent’ (which means when their egg production wanes). They will be killed long before their natural lifespan would end.
For the boys, they’ll stay on the conveyor belt until the very end, when they will drop off into a metal grinding machine, called a ‘macerator’. Or they will be gassed to death with CO2.
There’s a kinder choice.
Creating machines to kill chicks en masse is the clinical result of the egg industry’s drive for efficiency, as it strives to keep up with consumer demand.
But consumers were never made aware of the true cost of this product … the true cost of eggs.
See how easy (and delicious!) it is to replace eggs in your meals by exploring our handy guide to egg-free living. From sweet to savoury, cakes to quiches, there is an abundance of natural and tasty ingredients that do what eggs do – but kinder.
EGG-FREE GUIDE