Male chicks from egg-laying hens are culled at hatcheries because they do not lay eggs and do not grow as large as broiler chickens raised for meat. Each year, nearly 300 million male chicks are culled within a day of hatching in the U.S. alone, typically by grinding them up alive or gassing them to death. Animal welfare groups are calling on the egg industry to invest in technology that can sex chicks before they hatch so only female chicks are raised and males are spared from being killed.