Hens behind a chicken coop’s wire. | Stefania Pelfini, La Waziya Photography

Since the start of 2025, over 27 million egg-laying hens — 9 percent of the entire national flock — have died from the bird flu or have been (horrifically) killed to slow the spread.

It’s led to egg shortages and price spikes, with a carton of a dozen eggs today costing double what it did in early 2022, when this latest bird flu outbreak began.

Because of its impact on grocery bills, the mass killing of egg-laying hens has received far more attention than the more routine cruelties in the egg industry. But each year, whether there’s a bird flu outbreak or not, far more chickens are brutally killed for an entirely different purpose.

The egg industry hatches around 650 million birds annually, but because half of them — the males — can’t lay eggs, egg companies kill them the day they’re born. They’re typically shredded alive or gassed with carbon dioxide. Undercover investigations into hatcheries by animal rights groups have revealed this dark but little-known side of the business. Even........

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