Commercial chicken hatcheries process hundreds of millions of chicks annually. The welfare implications of hatchery operations — sorting, handling, transport of day-old chicks — represent a largely invisible welfare moment in poultry production.
Hatchery welfare is a welfare moment that occurs before most farm animal welfare attention begins. Day-old chick handling — sorting for sex and quality, culling of unwanted individuals, and transport — represents the first welfare events in a broiler or laying hen's life. Carbon dioxide gassing and maceration are welfare-relevant death methods whose speed and humaneness are debated among welfare scientists. Day-old chick transport without feed or water exploits the physiological reserve of chicks that have absorbed egg yolk — they can survive, but the practice represents a compromise of welfare for logistics. Automated chick handling systems prioritize speed over careful individual handling. The hatchery is a scale welfare moment that receives less scrutiny than farm housing or slaughter, creating a welfare gap in poultry production oversight.