Video Of Chicks Hatching In The Open Not From India

Click here to see the video and here for archived link.

BOOM received the video on its helpline along with messages both in Marathi and English for verification.

The video is viral on Facebook in both Marathi and English captions.

It was also tweeted by Kiran Bedi, Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry, though Bedi did not specify the location.

Fact Check

Taking cue from Urdu words BOOM ran a keyword search with "Thousand Chicks hatch from egg in Pakistan" and found two YouTube videos which were uploaded on March 27, 2020 and March 30, 2020 respectively. The description of the videos stated that the incident happened in Surjani Town of Karachi.

Upon further keyword search, we were directed to the same video which was uploaded on Facebook. The posts identified the location as Surjani Town, Karachi. Click here and here for the archive.

We also found two news reports by local channels Mianwalinews and GNN that reported about the incident during the same time. According the news report, the eggs which were dumped near the area for being spoilt, hatched on their own because of the favourable temperature.

Can incubation take place in open?

There are two types of eggs: fertile and infertile. The 'table eggs', which we eat, are infertile and hence are fit to be consumed. On the other hand, fertile eggs are produced by farms for reproduction of broiler chickens. BOOM contacted Dr Barun Roy, departmental professor of Animal Nutrition, West Bengal University of Animal and Fisheries Sciences. Roy disputed the claim of the video and exclaimed, "Chicks cannot hatch from eggs as shown in the video. If one or two also hatch, they eventually die. Commercial poultry breeding farm could have dropped the chicks there after they hatched as the price has plummeted during the lockdown period."

In June, 2018, a similar video was viral in Georgia where poultry farmers threw hundreds of eggs which eventually hatched. Read Daily Mail's report here.

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