Hatch only female chicks - find out how the poultry industry can now do that

Did you know that the poultry industry now has no more need to cull all the baby boy chicks of layer breed chickens. They can save resources by not even incubating the eggs that will hatch boys. Several systems are now commercially available and becoming widespread and cost-effective. The science of how they can do it is amazing!
Here's a link to the latest news in January 2025
www.poultrywor...
But can you hatch just girl chicks and no boys from your own backyard chickens? It's not likely, but there is maybe something you could try if you know your flock and you happen to be lucky.
And my previous video will tell you about colour-sexed chicks, so at least you can tell as soon as they hatch! Do check it out
• Can we hatch just fema...
For more fascinating facts, hints and tips about caring for your chickens, and the sheer pleasure of chickens, subscribe to my channel: Chickens in my garden - New Zealand
/ chickensinmygarden
Catch up with me on Facebook / chickensinmygarden
Or if you are more interested in gardens than chickens, you can follow my garden page / myplentifulgarden

[@kaedrian]

I always find your channel a wealth of information!

[@chickensinmygarden]

Thank you so much 😊 There is always more to learn about chickens!

[@mycountrygardenchannel]

Very interesting and informative. Many thanks.

[@chickensinmygarden]

Thank you! And greetings from New Zealand 😊

[@gaetiekn]

Such an interesting video again! Thank you! 😊 I am surprised the industry didn't find a way to engineer GMO hens that can only lay females eggs though! Probably the next step ahead!

[@chickensinmygarden]

Thank you 😊 Now that's an interesting thought!

[@duboislegacyfarm]

Fascinating information. Thanks for all the work you did putting it all together. I learned a lot. 🙂🐓

[@chickensinmygarden]

Thank you for that. I appreciate your comment 😊

[@CJR-f3w]

You get an A+ for your very professional presentation.

[@chickensinmygarden]

Wow, thank you so much! I have improved since my earliest videos 😊

[@6Jenne6La6Flaca6]

Wow this was fascinating! My mind was BLOWN about the ZZ ZW thing. NEVER could have guessed such a difference between mammals and birds. I'll definitely be watching the genetics series!!

[@chickensinmygarden]

And did you know they even breathe differently?! Not in then out like mammals! kzbin.info/www/bejne/q4LZn5-uip6CZ7M

[@darcieclements4880]

Okay I've got to ask, what's your background? You alluded to super males and I saw one of your comments talking about the respiratory system difference between mammals and birds. You also pointed out the difference in how sex chromosomes work. I cannot think of the last time I ran into a KZbinr with that level of biology knowledge, so I'm very interested and I think I'm going to check out more of your videos😂. I still have concerns about the loss of mail checks as a food source for carnivores and omnivores, but I appreciate the video and maybe someday you could do a follow-up where you look into that because it's an interesting alternative ethical debate and I would love to know more about the actual numbers involved but have not had time to dig into it to that depth. Anyhow thanks for the video it was fun.

[@chickensinmygarden]

@darcieclements4880 I'm retired now, but previously a medical laboratory scientist. Now I'm just a chicken enthusiast with lots of curiosity, access to the Internet, a penchant for researching and checking back to the original source and testing it out in my own experiencewhere possible, and plenty of time to do that. My knowledge of human genetics almost makes it harder to get sex-linked chicken traits right - I have to write it down every time 😄

[@day3583]

This video is informative!

[@chickensinmygarden]

Thank you 😊

[@ironrose888]

We hatched some of our eggs and separated them by egg shape. The pointy eggs we ate and incubated the more round eggs but we still got some male birds. At least we had less males than last year. Last year we hatched most of our eggs and we had more than 50% roos. They became so violent and hostile that we had to cull most of them. We can only keep 2 roosters who will work together to protect the hens. So far we haven’t lost a rooster while defending the hens but they have had some close calls. 😊

[@larrylewis3573]

Once again a very informative video on chickens. I am pleased to be informed about these so-called “advancements”. The technology is impressive, but, also, overwhelming. I prefer the the ways of the small but beautiful backyard flock. Thank you for your very informative and attractive videos. Sincerely, Larry Clarence Lewis London, Ontario, Canada.

[@chickensinmygarden]

Oh yes, I feel exactly the same way! The technology is fascinating and it's an improvement over what's been happening to these chicks, but nothing is sweeter than a mama hen caring 24/7 for a few chicks ❤️

[@ruthlongridge]

Excellent content, thanks! Wow who knew PCR actually works....

[@chickensinmygarden]

Oh yes, it certainly does. It's been used in hospital labs since before I retired 😄

[@DoubleDogDare54]

My solution to cockerels was dog food and bone broth. I wasn't a big commercial breeder, of course, so I had the luxury of that solution. Even buying sexed chicks they'd still throw in a cockerel on you. But stewing Stewie up as meat for the dogs and broth for soup worked out well.

[@chickensinmygarden]

That's an excellent solution! I've tried to cook cockerels (only twice) but I made lots of mistakes in preparing and cooking them and the result was scarcely good enough for dog food but I expect you've got good at it. I guess it's a skill like any other - just one that I don't have 😄

[@SarahPerine]

@@chickensinmygarden I think it’s just low and slow. I was vegan 25 years and so I say if I can learn to cook meat, anyone can😹. I also feed my farm dogs from the animals I raise on the farm. Much better than pet food!

[@chickensinmygarden]

@SarahPerine oh Absolutely! Anything straight from the farm or garden is so much better than something from a factory, for man or beast!

[@DoubleDogDare54]

@@SarahPerine I agree on the low and slow. Made the mistake of trying to roast one once. Turned out like a big rawhide dog chew, it was that tough. Switched to a big crockpot and got broth for us and meat for the hoonts.

[@XxBloggs]

Fascinating video.

[@chickensinmygarden]

Thank you so much 😊

[@beckymay439]

Super interesting video even we can’t use that technology. This year was one of my best hatch rates but worst rates for getting hens. 18 chicks resulted in just 6 hens! BUT I did observe that 4 of the 6 hens were obviously from the queen of my flock. I will def be focusing on her eggs this year.

[@chickensinmygarden]

Woo-hoo! You might be one of those lucky chicken keepers! Of course 4 out of 6 is not a statistically significant number but I would certainly be choosing her eggs too. Best of luck for lots of cute little girls this year!

[@nogames8982]

Baby chicks are also sold to Reptile food suppliers and to Raw feeding food suppliers for dogs and cats.

[@SarahPerine]

Where do you get all of your industry information? Really impressive! I’d like to stay on top of this info like you. I have a small pasture poultry farm. Thank you for your wonderful videos 💚

[@chickensinmygarden]

It's all publicly available on the Internet, but it does take a lot of finding and cross-referencing. I think this information is interesting, and it's precisely because it's so time-consuming to collate that I publish it as a video. This particular video was sparked by a news article about the installation of Cheggy machines in Iowa and Texas, and it was only when I was just about to publish that I saw the news about the ISA installation in 2025. Thank you for watching and for your kind comment. Best wishes to you and your flock 😊

[@SarahPerine]

@ Thank you so much! I have to spend more time learning about this. I like to share with my customers any and all poultry-related information. I’m especially interested in everything related to humane practices. I’ve shared a few of your videos in my weekly emails. I’m most interested in humane farming methods, regenerative agriculture and how to raise the healthiest food. I find it’s a balance with customers who mostly just want to see photos and videos of happy birds. But as you know, there’s so much to learn! So I try to stretch them a bit and I grow my own patience and faith through this endeavour!! I hope teachers use your videos. They are excellent 🙌🏽 I’m trying to research avian flu as much as possible. I’m not convinced it is the threat my country, the U.S., is making it out to be. I wonder what you are seeing and hearing 🤔

[@chickensinmygarden]

@SarahPerine New Zealand just had our first case of highly pathogenic avian flu this December, although it was not to H5N1 variant that's causing so much trouble in the northern hemisphere. We have been lucky so far because of not being on the migration routes of many waterfowl. But I've been watching with interest what's happening in Europe.

[@LongJonSilver]

As this will significantly lower the volume of cockerels, it will be interesting to see whether this will lead to cockerels only being available from large monopolies long term.

[@chickensinmygarden]

The commercial hybrid chickens (like Hy-Line, ISA Brown, Shaver) are only available from one of those two global companies. The female chicks that they sell to become layer hens are a cross between two carefully maintained separate breeds of parent and grandparent birds.

[@heldercosta4178]

Sorry because of ignorance, but, what’s the diference of killing chiks out of the egg ou inside of the eggs?

[@chickensinmygarden]

Chicks out of the egg are live animals who feel pain and fear. When they kill the chicks inside the egg they do it before the embryo has developed a brain stem (day 9) or brain activity (day 13) - without those there can be no pain, it's alive but just a bundle of cells.

[@chubbybottomacres]

@@chickensinmygarden interesting i was wondering the same thing since they develop so quickly (21 days) that there is a specific marker being looked at

[@chickensinmygarden]

​@chubbybottomacres If you're interested there is this amazing 2 minute animation showing the development www.poultryhub.org/chick-embryo-development-animation

[@Sara_Rockafella]

Iv just recently purchased a pekin bantam hen. Today she laid a pointed elongated egg like a torpedo. Definitely a different shape to her usual pointed classic round bottomed egg. I find it quite amazing that after.that today I turn on and find this piece of info. .

[@chickensinmygarden]

That is amazing!

[@joyg8904]

As much as my roos are a pain in the back side, i want their lives to be of some use. Great video

[@chickensinmygarden]

Thank you. Have a great day 😊

[@6Jenne6La6Flaca6]

Being able to check the gender of eggs prior to hatching is actually ingenious. It's much less HORRIFIC to dispose of an egg than it is to DISMEMBER a living breathing innocent fluffy baby. 🥺💔🐥

[@chickensinmygarden]

It is. The systems that test at day 8 or 9 are doing so before the embryo develops a brain stem so it's quite humane. The systems that test at day 12 or 13 are trying to do so before there is demonstrable brain activity and therefore ability to feel pain, but even so Hy-Line stunning the eggs before destroying them.

[@azsunburns]

The world does it daily on humans. Can't expect chicks to be an issue.

[@fermamotanuluilus2870]

Please make a video about breeding the rumlees chicken gene!!🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 😢

[@chickensinmygarden]

I haven't had experience with any rumpless chickens but they seem to have a few different genetic backgrounds. By far the most rumpless chickens have a very straightforward genetic basis - autosomal dominant. In other words at least one of the parent birds would be rumpless and if you mate a rumpless bird with a normal bird about half of the chicks would be rumpless. There also seems to be a rare recessive form in one or two unusual breeds. And occasionally rumplessness can appear as a random birth defect, which is not inherited. But for the majority of rumpless chickens it's just an autosomal dominant trait.

[@fermamotanuluilus2870]

@@chickensinmygarden Thank you, if I have a rumpless rooster and regular hens, will the rumpless trait be inherited in the baby chick ?

[@chickensinmygarden]

Probably about half the chicks would be rumpless, assuming that the rooster is heterozygous (carries one copy of the rumpless gene).

[@6Jenne6La6Flaca6]

I was not aware that hatcheries are SHREDDING baby male chicks. That is heartbreaking. Why do these hatcheries charge money for the males then? They are cheaper, yes, but wow - if the ones that aren't sold are SHREDDED, why do they charge for males in the first place?? I always order a few males when I get chicks from the hatchery.. I bet a whole lot of people would order more if they were free.

[@chickensinmygarden]

The hatcheries that supply you with chicks might not - I'm guessing you might be buying heritage breed chicks. It's the huge companies like ISA and Hy-Line that supply millions of hybrid chicks to the layer hen industry who don't bother to spare any males at all. These companies will never sell the males because they want to protect their copyrighted genetics.

[@eveadame1059]

​@@chickensinmygarden 🥚Fascinatingly Video! Thank you for covering this topic 💕

[@chickensinmygarden]

@eveadame1059 Thanks for watching 😊

[@SarahPerine]

@@6Jenne6La6Flaca6 a lot of the hatcheries reduce the cost of cockerel chicks because they don’t like the practice either. And it is usually cockerel chicks that you get when given extras. I focus my business on eggs, but I have raised broilers. I decided that in the future, the only broilers or meat chickens I will raise will be the dual purpose. If you can grow and raise the majority of feed yourself, then the grow out length doesn’t matter. So the 6 months + you may need to raise a heritage rooster to “market weight” won’t cost more than the 6-8 week Cornish across. The quality of life the broilers I raised on pasture in comparison to my egg layers was very low in my opinion. I raised Freedom Rangers but they still weren’t as happy and healthy as slower growing and more “natural” chickens. Anyhow, it’s all interesting and everyone has their own goals and standards.

[@chickensinmygarden]

I think raising heritage breed cockerels for meat has got to be the best option for the chickens and the planet. The trick is getting people to like meat that tastes like meat, instead of preferring something soft, white and tasteless. (Honestly I don't know why tofu isn't as popular as the stuff they sell as chicken)

[@darcieclements4880]

Given how many things we need the male chicks for especially feeding a large variety of exotic animals that need that type of nutrition specifically, I'm not sure this is a good thing. I know in a perfect world we'd like to think that we don't need to kill anything but the world is not perfect and it never will be. I know the general population thinks that the male chicks are just wasted, but they're actually incredibly important as a cheap source of extremely well balanced high nutrition calories for a lot of creatures and if we lose them we might actually see some serious problems in animal husbandry for exotics including those in conservation programs and zoos. I'm honestly kind of relieved that the discussion is about superstitions😅 I definitely was not expecting you to include information related to super males or in the case of chickens super females though. I know there's a lot of stuff in the works for producing just female chicks but all it means is that we'll have to produce more checks for the other uses to make up for it. And those newly produced chicks are going to be a lot more expensive. Basically, the goal is for it to eventually save money for the individuals who produce egg-laying birds, but cost more resources and money overall 😑 what's even worse is when Male chicks become unavailable, people who are working with the animals that used to consume them switch over to raising rodents which are incredibly environmentally destructive and cause health problems in the animals that are fed to because it's cheaper than trying to hatch the eggs 😞 maybe someday we'll get it to be efficient for both but I don't know, I wish people would look at the bigger picture instead of making assumptions.

[@chickensinmygarden]

Interestingly enough, the need for male chicks as feed for zoo animals was the main reason Austria gave for refusing to ban chick culling in 2021-2022. But in October 2023 they changed the law to ban chick culling. I don't know what they use for feeding their zoo animals now. I think there might always be a market for chicks - one zoo in Germany uses 50,000 chicks per year. But that's a tiny percentage of the millions of chicks hatched. The Nebraska factory that will serve 10% of the US market will hatch 24 million female chicks per year.

[@newclearly]

My roosters taste just as good as my hens, I don't get the fuss. Maybe I prefer the gamier chickens because I don't really like the mealy soft texture of broiler chickens. Rhode Island Reds are so far my favorite for dual purpose, but I hatched a batch of American Bresse in late spring and just got my first egg almost 8 months later.

[@chickensinmygarden]

I don't understand either why so many people prefer that soft texture and bland taste of commercial broiler chickens.

[@darcieclements4880]

It's more of the feed to meet conversion ratio that keeps people from raising male egg laying breeds for meat. It's just cheaper to raise the ones with the hybrid vigor that causes them to overgrow excessively fast.

[@Marilou-g5t]

Interesting! In cattle, the x and y sperm are sorted prior to artificial insemination, when sorted straws are purchased...

[@chickensinmygarden]

Wow! I didn't know that! I wonder if it's possible with people 😄

[@Marilou-g5t]

@chickensinmygarden the x and y sperm swim at different rates. Y's swim faster, but die sooner. X swim slower and live longer.

[@hollythebordercollie2257]

I don't get why some hens might have more female chicks - surely it should be down to chance? It seems more likely that there could be a difference in egg shape between males and females as at least the eggs do have different DNA in them. Having said that looking at my quail eggs I couldn't see much variation between eggs from an individual hen. While I was researching the eggs shape thing I came across a scientific paper where they tried to change the male chicks into females by giving them hormones, but (strangely) the male chicks never did lay eggs - ffs how dumb are some 'scientists'?

[@honeytoone8610]

Why couldn’t they use them for raw dog food?

[@chickensinmygarden]

I believe they are usually used for some kind of pet food.

[@cubaniton74]

I am currently in the process of trying to cross a Meat Broiler with an Egg Production Chicken, to see if I can get an excellent dual-purpose chicken, one which will be feed efficient by gaining weight fast, and efficient at laying eggs early and lots of them.

[@chickensinmygarden]

Good luck 😊

[@pebbles8022]

So here’s my armchair thoughts, does the environment influence the hens when producing either sex ? I.e one surrounded with excess males produce females? Or when food is abundant? Cos in my experience nature has an influence particularly if the hen’s genetics are what determines the future balance of males and females.

[@chickensinmygarden]

That's an interesting thought. It reminds me of the change in proportion of male and female human babies born after two world wars - the usual 51-49 proportion shifted just a tiny bit. Hmmm 🤔

[@pebbles8022]

@ I’m sure I’ve seen a couple of documentaries, where, within them , it has been noted certain circumstances where the sex ratio has changed dramatically enough for us to notice ? Interesting stuff 🙂

[@cherriethomas9538]

A capon is better tasting than any Turkey. I don't understand why they don't caponize the birds. This is what my dad taught us on the ranch. A caponized bird will cost you a 100 bucks or more. If you can even find Em, they're a delicacy, you don't have to kill the roosters, you capanize them and grow them out and have the best food you've ever eaten. I don't understand you. People destroy the best. And you probably eat the old hen.

[@chickensinmygarden]

Maybe it's because of the cost. Many consumers choose cheap food rather than food that is tasty and healthy.

[@chubbybottomacres]

chicken keeper in USA say it's too hard to caponize safely, i would love to learn how

[@cherriethomas9538]

@chubbybottomacres i got my son a caponising kit an there are several on how to do it on KZbin. an when I was a kid the older kids were taught how so it's not hard. it's how you look at your farm and use everything you get we make tallow an use lard to cook with. No one in my family is sick or over weight. Blessings

[@janus878]

Kapaune sind in Deutschland, wahrscheinlich ganz Europa verboten. Die Hähne im Ei zu töten ist genauso pervers wie sie als Küken zu schreddern. Wo kommen denn die ganzen Hähnchen her im Supermarkt? Wo sind dazu die ganzen weiblichen Mast- Hühnerküken? Früher hat man ZweiNutzungs- Hühner gehabt und aufgezogen und selbstverständlich die Eier und das Fleisch genossen, das war Sinn der Sache. Heute stellt man eine falsche Moral in der Mittelpunkt, die es nicht gibt.

[@elzbietadobrowolska9200]

@ thank you! Years ago in Poland every farmer knew how to 'make' capon. Now you are not allowed, you must call the vet. This is just insane. We lost all the knowledge our ancestors gathered for years... 😢

[@DouglasGreen-g5u]

I found well hatching pheasant that cooling periods during incubation for longer periods would produce more males that was better for me

[@chickensinmygarden]

Thanks for that. I covered something similar in my previous video on this topic kzbin.info/www/bejne/bHyqqWivabKUqpY It seems to disproportionately kill off the chicks of one sex.

[@Athena621]

Where/when/how is the sex determined it pheasants, is it different from chickens?

[@chickensinmygarden]

I believe it is the same in all birds, including pheasants 😊

[@baharahmadkhan]

It is good to avoid culling...and now we can get male or female eggs.... don't know when this technology will come to India

[@chickensinmygarden]

It's not here in New Zealand yet either 😒

[@yzettasmith4194]

And of course the US lags behind Europe, again. :sigh:

[@chickensinmygarden]

Ah, but they're catching up 😊 I didn't mention New Zealand (where I live). No progress here at all 😒

[@timyeo9736]

Boy I hat hatched 8 chicks 7roosters

[@chickensinmygarden]

😄

[@tatjanasutube]

I thought you were going to teach us backyard chicken keepers how to tell if our eggs are male or female

[@chickensinmygarden]

I covered quite a few possibilities in my previous video kzbin.info/www/bejne/bHyqqWivabKUqpY But the short answer is really No 😒

[@blujeans9462]

Oh my! I was not aware. Since the US is lagging in simple technology, there is absolutely no reason not to let the males be raised to the age of a profitable size and sell the meat to the dog food industry. It is still good meat.

[@chickensinmygarden]

Yes it would be good dog meat but it would cost more to feed those cockerels than the value of the dog food they would yield 😒

[@Sara_Rockafella]

And lets hope the plan is NOT to drop the roosters at the countries rest areas.. There's places who will process the roosters. And rhey DO make good boiling birds esp in curries... or pet food. Some home kill bizzos will process them..and if your lucky you'll find a processing plant just for fowl

[@chickensinmygarden]

Yes, please don't abandon them to starvation.

[@Sara_Rockafella]

​@@chickensinmygardenthe north island rest ateas on SH2 are FULL of them.

[@GetToTheFarm]

they then dump the roo chicks dirst cheap on African countries and devastate the local chicken raisers....

[@marielaretivesiccard7162]

Does anyone study the correlation between the breakdown of chicken family units and the result on populations consuming such produce if that the reflects in human family disintegration... 🤔

[@chickensinmygarden]

Not that I know of. There would be too many confounding variables to use historical data, and it would be unacceptably unethical to experiment on human children.

[@Resologist]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal

[@zane4utwo]

Why can't the male chicks be used to make pet food? Just asking

[@chickensinmygarden]

Those day-old chicks are minced up and then used mainly as an ingredient in pet food manufacture. The same happens with the eggs that are found to contain male embryos at Day 9 or 12.

[@paulacannon3452]

i just hatched 6 eggs a few weeks ago i got 5 boys 1 girl :( i all ready have 3 boys living in my house that get loved to bits and go to sleep with me getting cuddled every night i cant take on any more not sure what to do with these 5 new ones .😭😭😭😩

[@DGibsonxio]

12 out of 15 were males in mine😭

[@chickensinmygarden]

Those Barnevelders in my video were 6 boys out of 9. The following year with eggs of a different breed I had a terrible hatch - only 3 live chicks but 2 were girls. 😄

[@chickensinmygarden]

@DGibsonxio Wow! That must be a record!

[@DGibsonxio]

@chickensinmygarden it was for me. Had a buddy hatch 13 of those and a hen snuck in the other two. Hers were equally split. She hatched four pullets last summer. I don't usually let them set small batches like that. But it was her first time. This year all I had was two eggs. There's gotta to be an easier way to get the girls!

[@chaparra71]

😂😂😂

[@KhilikithiBhuu-Phansi]

In fish males are preferred so they have males with YY and not XY chromosomes. In dairy cattle they separate and leave just female gametes to ensure all females. Are there no pH theories to influence gender in chickens. Male broilers are preferred for their express growth rates. If it’s morally and politically correct can the pH of the fertilisation environment influence gender prevalence? How?

[@chickensinmygarden]

None that I have heard about. I haven't even read any research on that topic at all.

[@jacobbrizammito7187]

My wife thinks the PH matters, with Males being more basic.

[@chickensinmygarden]

Is she talking about chickens? Or you 😄😄😄

[@JohnSmith-xk4id]

@@jacobbrizammito7187when Dad and science humor come together!

[@Athena621]

As far as I know the sex in chickens is set in the ovum (not the sperm) not during development during hatching.

[@angelastipes4401]

Miss you try to handle them when they're little they'll be usually nicer when they're older the roosters and stuff and you can always turn them out in your yard cuz they can eat ticks and bugs and stuff like that of course you know when you're looking to have your first chickens with a male rooster though I mean you have to buy them usually now we ended up getting too many boys at one time and so we chose to harvest them for meet my son ate them they were okay if you slow cook meat from like wild animals or roosters usually you can get it kind of tender the meat anyway it's not that bad apparently but my son just got two free roosters given to him but I already have one so I let him turn them loose in the yard you know on the land out here cuz we usually have bugs anyway it's a good idea for people to have roosters instead of all them pesticides on their yards

[@rickyodom1201]

no wonder store bought chicken bad it not the same as rossters we use kill for meat on the farm hens for laying eggs and this why there is shortage

[@chickensinmygarden]

You are right - it's definitely not the same. The old way produced much tastier meat 😊

[@DeesNutzandBerries]

My brother was in the marines in North Carolina. All marines at that base all produced girls if they had babies with their wives/girlfriends. This was due to the men getting receiving radio waves (or this is what I was told) just curious if this would work for chickens. Or if they could track are producing more females, then maybe try selecting that way. Just a couple of my thoughts.

[@debbibowen]

It's known in the submarine community that they have many more girls than boys. No one is investigating this, as far as I know.

[@joehannah1343]

I'm a Marine with 2 Years in NC. Also used high powered radios. 2 boys, NO girls.