Many people aren’t aware that there’s actually 2 different types of chicken that are used commercially; Laying hens and Meat hens (otherwise known as Broilers).
The broiler industry has grown due to consumer demand for affordable poultry meat. Breeding for production traits and improved nutrition have been used to increase the weight of the breast muscle. Commercial broiler chickens are bred to be very fast growing in order to gain weight quickly.
Most broilers are taken as day old chicks from the hatchery to their new farms where they live their life. Broilers that are farmed intensively are bred from strains that are very fast growing in order to gain weight quickly and use less feed. Unlike laying hens (kept for egg production), which live for about a year in the intensively farmed corporations, our hens live for about 4 years! Broilers only live for several weeks before they are slaughtered. In the EU, the slaughter age can range from 21 to 170 days but is typically around 5 to 7 weeks. At this age, the broilers bones haven’t even formed properly and tend to be rubbery, there’s been a lot of stories about hens unable to walk because their own weight is too heavy for their under-developed legs!
Globally, over 70% of broiler chickens are raised in quite similar indoor intensive (industrial) farming systems and only a small proportion are reared in less intensive, higher welfare systems. Keeping broiler production indoors, without any access to outside areas can help with pest control. In temperate countries, broiler sheds are closed, climate-controlled (e.g., fan-ventilated) and have artificial lighting.
Chickens in alternative farming systems will have more space (lower stocking densities) and often use chickens from slower-growing breeds with higher welfare outcomes, so the birds are typically slaughtered at an older age than fast-growing breeds. The environment can also be enhanced, for example with indoor enrichment and/or with an outdoor area. In the EU, only a small proportion of commercial broilers are reared in alternative systems. In the US, less than 1% of chickens are raised as ‘free-range’ (the term is used if chickens have access to the outdoors for at least some part of the day).
I’m writing this blog post because as we’re growing our business with all new breeds, we’re incubating so much more to help the rare breeds expand, which leaves us with roughly 60% cockerels to 40% hens each hatch. We’re trying to run our business with as little waste as possible. Most farms would cull the cockerels at such a young age so that they don’t use any of the food that is needed to feed the hens. We grow our cockerels up to ensure that we choose the best to breed from, but this obviously leaves a lot of cockerels with not much use. We’re looking into the idea of using the cockerels for meat to reduce the amount of waste from our farm. The cockerels are all meat and laying breeds like our Light Sussex.
I basically wanted to make you aware of the way that most of the chickens in the supermarket are brought up so you can understand why they are so cheap. Cheapest isn’t always best! You literally get what you pay for.
Our birds are kept to all organic standards, on organic feed and out on the pasture all day long. Our birds also would go to slaughter at about 26 weeks instead of the 8 weeks for broilers. I wanted to get an idea of how many of you would pay extra to have a bird that’s lived a good life and is a very sustainable way of producing organic meat.
If you’ve got any opinions on the above, we’d love to hear them! Please send us an email and let us know your thoughts!