Mad about the boy(s)

Every now and then the issue of unwanted cockerels (quite literally) rears its head, and we are forced to face the fact that, sadly, our male feathered friends seem to be just as undervalued and disregarded as their female counterparts once were.

As a charity, not only do we deal with hundreds of calls to rehome unwanted cockerels borne out of school chick hatching schemes, we remain disappointed at how behind the UK is when it comes to male chick culling.

Chick hatching in schools

Chick hatching schemes are commonplace in today’s schools, not least thanks to its inclusion within the Government’s National Curriculum, which suggests chick hatching could be used to learn about animal life cycles.

“…They might observe changes in an animal over a period of time (for example, by hatching and rearing chicks), comparing how different animals reproduce and grow.”

Department of Education, Statutory guidance - National curriculum in England: science programmes of study (2015)

Several companies across the UK offer a full package where schools are provided with all the equipment they need to incubate, hatch eggs and observe chicks’ development over a few days. And as anyone who understands probabilities will know, the chances of hatching six eggs and not ending up with at least one or more cockerels is unlikely.

Hatching programme companies claim to find homes for these unwanted chicks once they have passed their cute sell by date.

However, their fate remains very much uncertain, as is proven by the daily calls we receive to help find homes for cockerels hatched through these schemes.

BHWT supporter, volunteer and primary school teacher, Sarah Walker, said: “We have them in classrooms where I teach, and there are always problems. Honestly, I don’t think hatching in school should happen at all.

“With so many hens already in need of homes, I just don’t think it’s ethical to bring even more chicks into the world this way. Schools that want animals should partner with charities to keep hens on site, rather than hatching them in the classroom.”

Male chick culling

‘Hatch and dispatch’, aka male chick culling, is the fate some 40 to 45 million male chicks in the UK face in their first few days of life simply because they are the wrong gender to lay eggs and cannot be raised for meat. As a nation of animal lovers we have fallen behind other European countries like Germany and France who have already banned male chick culling, seeking more welfare-friendly alternatives.

The Government’s own Animal Welfare Committee has stated that male chick culling should be made “illegal as soon as reliable, accurate methods for sexing eggs prior to hatch are available to be implemented in GB hatcheries”. The latest polling also shows that the British public strongly favours a ban on male chick culling.

Taking action

The British Hen Welfare Trust recently wrote to Secretary of State for Education Bridget Phillipson on the matter of school chick hatching schemes to express concern over the mention of chick hatching within the National Curriculum, and to ask that it be replaced with a more ethical way of learning.

The response we received clarified that there is no requirement to use hatching projects and that this is non-statutory so the same learning can be achieved via other methods. However, we suggest that the inclusion of hatching projects as an activity example may be seen by schools as endorsement.

We will continue advocating for alternative ways of learning, such as adopting hens to be cared for in school by pupils, as well our range of primary school workshops teaching children about where their food comes from and inspiring the next generation of hen keepers.

Regarding male chick culling, we have signed an open letter to the Minister of State for Food Security and Rural Affairs, Daniel Zeichner, put together by The Vegetarian Society, which calls for the Government to commit to ending hatch and dispatch in the UK.

As always we will keep you informed on both these topics.

To find out more about our primary school resources as an alternative to chick hatching, scan the QR code on this page.