Separating male from female chicks is done immediately after taking them out of the incubating rooms. Quality females are sent for marketing, the rest are killed. Male chicks are killed at the laying battery because there is no profitability in raising them. Two killing methods are used around the world: gas (CO2) and crushing. In Israel, for several reasons these devices are not used and the hatcheries kill chicks by the cheap and simple method of dumping them into a container in which they die from suffocation and pressure.

The Farm Animals Fellowship in Israel, raised the matter of chick killing into public attention through the media, and contacted the Agricultural Engineering Institute with a request to develop a machine that would kill chicks quickly by electrocution, in order to prevent their suffering from the slow and painful death caused by the methods now used.

In the Agricultural Engineering Institute a device was developed that kills the chicks in accordance with the demands of the Farm Animals Fellowship, on the one hand, and with those of the hatcheries, on the other hand. The hatcheries demands were: mechanical reliability and the efficient killing of a maximum number of the chicks produced by the hatchery. The device is composed of two parts: a smooth conveyor on which the chicks are wetted with an electrolytic fluid from sprinklers, and a pair of chain conveyors positioned one on the top of the other with a 20-mm gap. The two chain conveyors are connected to opposite electrical poles. The chicks are trapped between the conveyors after being wetted and are electrocuted on their first contact between the conveyors.

The device that was developed has operated in Hefetz Haim for several months, with no failures and to the satisfaction of all sides. The device has been examined by the veterinary services and an agreement in principal has been issued for building a commercial machine. Recently a commercial device has been built by a manufacturer. The device is currently being rechecked and, on receipt of a permit it will be installed in the hatchery for routine operations.