• Jessica@discuss.tchncs.de
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    9 months ago

    The explanation behind this is actually pretty disturbing. Due to selective breeding the growth hormones we feed chickens in America, the chickens become fully grown much earlier than usual. It’s like the equivalent of becoming a fully grown adult by the time you are the age of five, but you still have the mental and muscle capacity of a five year old.

    Between 1957 and 2005, chickens raised for their meat quadrupled in size due to selective breeding. They grow to their slaughter weight in just 6 weeks, and their legs often struggle to support their own body weight.

    https://animalequality.org/blog/2021/09/01/green-meat/

    • The_v@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Chickens do not receive any hormones. It’s been banned in poultry in the U.S. since the 1950’s when it was tested and shown to be ineffective. Beef commonly gets hormone implants in their ears. No hormones are approved or used in feed.

      The rapid growth of the birds is mostly due to selective breeding and nutritional improvements. The growth rate and adult size in animals can be massively changed by breeders. Just look at the Great Dane and mini-yorky in dogs.

      They also use antibiotics in the feed to reduce the bacteria load of the birds. This does increase the growth rate and reduces sick birds and deaths. It is not a good idea when it comes to antibiotic resistance buildup in bacteria however.

      • K[r]ukenberg@feddit.ch
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        9 months ago

        They also use antibiotics in the feed […] It is not a good idea

        It’s a fucking collision course with reality doomed to send us back to the 19th century.

        But of course, for a short duration of human history, it marginally increased the profits for stakeholders.

    • oatscoop@midwest.social
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      9 months ago

      I’ve raised Cornish crosses and fed them normal, quality feed without any hormones: they ended up looking just like the chicken on the right at about 8 weeks old.

      They’ve been selectively bred over the decades to grow as fast as possible, as big as possible, docile, and stupid.

    • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Hormones in farm feed have been abolished back in the 80s. This is from breeding selective breeds . Stop watching shitty Facebook videos. Your brain has been rotted.

      • Jessica@discuss.tchncs.de
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        9 months ago

        I literally corrected the sentence from “hormones” to “selective breeding” and it’s still factual. Simple mistake. I don’t watch shitty Facebook videos, and my brain isn’t rotten… I just miss remembered what I assume was the scene from super size me 2 mentioned by another poster.

        I also included a quote and a citation and my original post about how they grow so large so fast they often collapse under their own weight.

        Truly the greatest of errors misremebering that was because of hormones 🙄

        • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Mis remembering hormones? Come on. That is a distinction you don’t ‘mis remember’ seeing as that was the catch phrase of the 2012 sensationalist click bait of the millennium for the PETA. That single phrase laboured under staged farm videos was essentially what dropped their credibility to zero.

          You don’t mis remember what reduced an entire movement to fraud.

        • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          They literally said ‘hormones’ and even admitted to changing it after once they entire internet called them out on it.

          non-medical antibiotic

          in humans

          Important distinction.

      • DillyDaily@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        If you watch Super Size Me 2, they go into a lot more detail on why the selective breeding is so disturbing.

        Amoung other things, the birds are bred for meat muscle development, their cardiovascular systems have not been equally enhanced and as a result, chicken farmers know that the birds are big enough for slaughter because some of them will just start dropping dead of heart failure.

        • ktr41n@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Piggybacking on this comment, but i never realized until I started keeping chickens that meat birds get so disproportionately huge that you can’t allow them to roost / have to have a ramp out of their coop. If they jump, they’ll blow out their legs when they land and just…die. They’re literally bred to be incompatible with life, as no one really needs them to live long anyway.

  • Raxiel@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I guess that’s also why people started having turkey for big family gatherings even through chicken tastes better.

    Now a chicken is perfectly adequate for a family of four, or even six depending on the trimmings.

  • Mighty@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    this chicken is probably less than 2 years old. chickens could live for 10years if they’d be left alone.

    • eclectic_electron@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      I don’t think chickens raised for meat live anywhere near 2 years. Yeah, a quick google shows around a 2 month harvest time for chickens raised for meat. That’s a big part of why chickens are such amazing creatures and make such an affordable protein source, they can be sustainably* harvested year round. (Sustainably as in without decreasing the size of your flock.)

      Laying hens are productive for two to three years. They rarely make it into the human food supply though, after that long the texture and flavor of the meat changes and American consumers don’t prefer it. You can probably get them through a local butcher shop, though they might have to order it for you.

      In a small and well managed flock, chickens can live 6 to 8 years. In the wild, I don’t think modern chickens would exist at all. Ask anyone who’s kept chickens, keeping the hawks and foxes and raccoons etc. out of them is a constant and eternal struggle.

      • boomzilla@programming.dev
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        9 months ago

        Laying hens also are productive way beyond their ancestors with 10-20 eggs, which takes a big toll on their bones. According to a study from the university of Kassel an estimated 23-69% per flock come to the slaughtering line with broken keelbones, wings and legs from egg calcium depletion, rough handling and crammed cages.

        Egg factory farming is an all around brutal and despicable industry. Look up what forced molting and maceration means and get your own chickens if you’re able or eat scrambled tofu.

        • Emerald@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          The chickens you would be able to get would be the same chickens used in farming, with all the health issues you mentioned.

          And yes tofu scramble is amazing

      • CADmonkey@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Ask anyone who’s kept chickens, keeping the hawks and foxes and raccoons etc. out of them is a constant and eternal struggle.

        Two things I have learned as a chicken weirdo:

        1.) Get dark colored chickens

        2.) Get a big mean rooster.

        I haven’t lost a chicken so far, but I have seen my bigass stupidly brave rooster take on all comers, he has defeated squirrels, snakes, frogs, mice, and a gopher that was apparently pretty bad at making connections. I’ve watched him chase off a cat and a pretty good sized dog. Foghorn Leghorn is more accurate than I realized.

        But more than his incredible dinosaur kung-fu is that he is smart, and communicates with his hens. He will tell them to shelter in the coop, and they will run and hide. A hawk isn’t going to want to deal with 15 pounds of land-bird standing in a small doorway.

        For the color, a black or gray chicken will be harder to see against the ground than a white one. Also, I think they look cooler than plain white chickens.

      • Stubb@lemmy.sdf.org
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        9 months ago

        without decreasing the size of your flock.

        Read that as “without decreasing the size of your cock”

  • The Barto@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    So is that username pronounced “Ho Mobile” as in a car for hoes or “Homo Bile” as in stomach acid from gay people?