This issue originated in the 1950s when specialised poultry breeding began. Chickens were bred to either convert feed into meat, so-called broilers, or to convert feed into eggs, so-called layers. Broilers are usually reared in 6 weeks to a weight of 2,5 kg and then slaughtered. Layers, on the other hand, are bred to lay around 400 eggs in their lifetime of 90 weeks.
Logically, for each female layer chick that hatches, a male layer hatches. As these can’t lay eggs and only very slowly convert feed into meat, they lack economic value and thus get culled the day they hatch.
