The weight of different breeds of chicken over their lifespan
EDIT: for some context on the problems this creates
The science is clear that fast-growing chickens like the Ross 308 are doomed by their genetics. These have been engineered to grow so incredibly fast, and their bodies just cannot handle it.”
Jackson said secret filming at broiler farms supplying big supermarkets has shown birds struggling to walk or collapsing under their own weight, or dying from heart failure, and dead birds were filmed lying among the flocks.
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Andrew Knight, a professor of animal welfare and ethics at the University of Winchester, said: “With these really rapid growth rates, it can be difficult for the heart and circulatory system to keep up with the expanding body mass. A proportion of these animals suffer from heart failure. It’s also difficult for the bones, ligaments and tendons to keep up with the rapidly increasing body mass, meaning that a proportion of these birds become severely lame [inability to walk properly].”
I remember going to my aunt's home where they had a chicken coup. I asked why the chickens where so skinny, thinking the poor chickens weren't being fed enough. My dad said this is a normal chicken not those super fat chickens made for their meat. So I looked into it and saw how chickens were treated and problems with their sizes. Truly eye opening.
When I was in Korea, I leaned that chickens can (sort of) fly. They can flap their wings hard enough to get from the ground to a tree branch maybe 8 feet or so off the ground, and safely back down.
And I've heard chickens tasted better back in the old days. A bird that eats grubs, worms, grasshoppers, frogs, snakes, etc tastes different than one that just eats chickenfeed all day.
Wild turkeys can fly, too. It's impressive. I once came around a blind corner on my bike, there was a turkey in the road, and it took off in a manner I can only describe as 747esque --- it did not look like it should be able to fly, yet there it was, clearly flying.
My chickens can get pretty high. Only one can get a full 8ft off the ground, but they can fly pretty well for being non-flight birds. They can fly pretty far across the ground too, when they want to.
The next logical step would be to genetically engineer out the parts that make it an animal: the digestive tract and most of the brain and nervous system, ending up with spherical meat-fruit that grow on a chicken tree plumbed into a nutrient feed.
It's not just feeding them more that's caused this. To get chickens this large they genetically selected/modified for what was more profitable. I.e they may lead to features being changed unevenly
This is all at expense of pretty everything else like their health
Are these the same breed of chicken? For example, Cornish Cross or American Breast or something? If not, it does feel kinda weird comparing them. If they are all the same base breed, that's some totally crazy selection going on there.
For clarity/example, comparing a Cornish Cross from 1970 against one from 2000 is different than comparing a Cornish Cross from 1970 against an American Breast in 2000. I just wanted to clarify what was being compared.
They have been artificially selected to grow faster. The breeds of chickens are not natural in the slightest. They are even patented so only one company can for instance sell the Ross 308. The changes in breeds that are most common are due to intensive selection. The breeds themselves will get classified differently as those selections happen, so comparing the same one wouldn't make as much sense
That's crazy. I don't raise chickens right now, but I do follow a lot of farm/homestead content with people who do raise poultry for meat. I had considered raising my own egg-layers (just a couple) since I have plenty of space for them to run around and delicious bugs to eat. I have no idea what breeds we have here in Japan, though, for any use case.
I've been listening to a really good show on this recently. It's not as clear cut as I once thought. Yes, welfare wise these chickens are worse, but environmentally, they are much better. They eat less, poo less and the poo is contained (living indoors) so it can be burnt to create heat for the sheds in Winter, and then reused as fertiliser. When left to roam free, they poo on the fields, which then runs off and destroys river habitats (see the River Wye).
My parents used to keep chickens in their garden. They could roam in the garden freely during the day, the coop was only closed at night to keep predators out. One day a chicken decided it would like to check out the roof of the house across the street. Now my parents' house is at a hillside so the neighbor's house was quite a bit lower but the chicken still had fly at least 3m up and probably almost 10m across the street. It sat there for quite a while and we were a bit worried it wouldn't dare to fly back down but eventually it did. Chickens are funny.