I'd agree with you here, these animals already exist and I think it's extremely sad that their lives will have been entirely for waste.
The point of my original comment was that in the vast majority of cases, the way they are being treated right now - i.e. culled with these various methods - is par for the course for the modern animal products industry.
That said, I hope you give your hens a good home, and if you do I applaud you. Despite trying my best to maintain a vegan diet right now, I would love to one day raise (heritage breed, that lay infrequently) hens in my backyard - assuming I have one, as a city-dweller.
We cull the very sick (because vets by and large don't know about chickens, and entering the vets cost about 3 times the cost of the chicken) and the roosters (because you really only need one per flock).
Other than that, they have space outside to roam, and we even have some "freeloaders" - hens that have become too old to lay, but we keep them on anyway.
The point of my original comment was that in the vast majority of cases, the way they are being treated right now - i.e. culled with these various methods - is par for the course for the modern animal products industry.
That said, I hope you give your hens a good home, and if you do I applaud you. Despite trying my best to maintain a vegan diet right now, I would love to one day raise (heritage breed, that lay infrequently) hens in my backyard - assuming I have one, as a city-dweller.