Tyson blames underperforming roosters for US chicken shortage

Underperforming roosters that aren’t producing as many chicks as expected are partly to blame for the US poultry shortage, according to executives at Tyson Foods.

The Springdale, Arkansas-based company, one of the world’s largest producers of poultry and other meats, said earlier this week that it’s struggling to ramp up chicken supply because the new roosters it’s been using for fertilizing eggs and breeding new chicks simply aren’t hitting expectations. “We’re changing out one [type of] male that, quite frankly, we made a bad decision on,” Donnie King, president of Tyson’s poultry business, said Monday on a conference call with analysts.