Egg Brand Ends Male Chick Culling at Massive Scale

NestFresh says its in-ovo sexing program has passed 1.2 million chicks hatched without male chick culling, a milestone the California egg producer announced on October 1, 2026. The company screens the embryos' sex before hatching, so eggs flagged as male are diverted from the hatching process instead of being hatched and killed. NestFresh expects its tally to reach 1.5 million by the end of the year.

Male chick culling is standard practice in egg production because male chicks of laying breeds cannot lay eggs and do not fatten the way broiler breeds do, so hatcheries have long killed them within a day of hatching. An estimated seven billion male chicks die this way worldwide each year, according to Mercy For Animals, an animal welfare group that published a hatchery investigation in September 2026. In-ovo sexing, which determines the embryo's sex before it hatches, is the main technology offered as an alternative.

NestFresh introduced its humane hatching program in late 2024, brought the eggs to store shelves in 2025, and moved its full core lineup to the method earlier this year, becoming the first national egg brand to end male chick culling across its whole retail range, as reported by NOSH on October 1, 2026. The latest company announcement extends the commitment across the company's three brands: New Barn Organics has moved to fully sourcing its eggs through the program, and Country Hen plans to follow by 2027. New packaging will carry a humane hatching label so shoppers can spot participating eggs.

How the in-ovo screening works

The system scans developing eggs and determines the sex of the embryo without breaking the shell. NestFresh uses non-invasive Cheggy technology from Agri Advanced Technologies, a system built for commercial-scale hatcheries. The company's program is checked against Certified Humane standards through Humane Farm Animal Care, the certifier that already audits its farms, adding an outside verification step to its effort to end male chick culling for good.

Company vice president Jasen Urena called the rollout a test of whether humane methods can hold up at industrial scale, saying the program is "proving that humane innovation isn't just possible at commercial scale, it's already making a measurable difference," according to the announcement. He added that the company plans to keep expanding the program and spare millions more birds from male chick culling in the coming years. The tone marks a shift: two years ago, he said, in-ovo sexing was still something the industry was hesitant to discuss openly.

Male chick culling by the numbers

The practice persists because the economics of egg farming were built around it. Layer operations need hens, and the males that hatch alongside them were treated as a byproduct with no market value. The result is one of the largest animal welfare problems in the food system, with global deaths estimated in the billions each year. Germany and France have banned the practice outright, while in-ovo screening has entered commercial use in the United States and Brazil, according to Mercy For Animals' September report.

Against that backdrop, NestFresh's tally shows both the progress and the gap. Saving that many birds proves the technology works at scale, but one company's program covers only a small slice of a global industry still killing billions of male chicks a year. Other producers are beginning to announce in-ovo commitments, though most are at an earlier stage than NestFresh. The cost of the screening equipment and the question of which alternatives best fit each country's regulations remain open issues for the wider industry.

The counterpoint worth noting is that the humane option is currently concentrated at the premium end of the egg aisle. NestFresh sells free-range and pasture-raised eggs from small family farms, which already cost more than conventional dozens. Whether in-ovo sexing can reach mainstream egg prices will decide whether male chick culling fades across the industry or stays a feature of higher-priced cartons.

What the label means for egg shoppers

For consumers, the change will show up as a line on the carton. New Barn Organics packaging will begin carrying the humane hatching designation, and the eggs are rolling out to more shelves through the end of the year. The company's eggs already sell nationwide at retailers including Whole Foods Market, H-E-B, Food Lion, Albertsons, Harris Teeter and Publix, and NestFresh eggs are listed on the ASPCA's ShopKind tool, which helps shoppers find groceries produced to higher welfare standards.

The announcement drew backing from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Nancy Roulston, the group's senior director of corporate policy, said in-ovo technology is "readily available, designed for large-scale commercial hatcheries," and urged the industry to adopt it now that a workable fix for male chick culling exists, according to the announcement. Her argument is aimed at other producers: with the technology proven, she said, consumers expect the egg industry to move.

Egg prices remain one of the most watched grocery indicators for budget-conscious shoppers, as covered in GenZ NewZ's look at how poultry consumption keeps climbing. The humane hatching milestone adds a welfare dimension to the egg aisle that was not there two years ago: shoppers who pay the premium can now pick a carton produced without male chick culling. More food and cooking coverage lives on the cooking and recipes topic page.