Every year the US egg industry kills about 350 million male chicks because, while the fuzzy little animals are incredibly cute, they will never lay eggs, so have little monetary value. That longtime practice is changing, thanks to new technology that enables hatcheries to quickly peer into millions of fertilized eggs and spot male embryos, then grind them up before they mature into chicks. The system began operating this month in Iowa at the nation’s largest chick hatchery, which handles about 387,000 eggs each day, the AP reports.
