That's good. The fucking broilers these days eat eachother because they need the energy. And it's not from hormones like that guy below says. It's from selective breeding. But they do grow fucking fast and it's not the ones we eat that we need to worry about primarily, it's their mothers that we need to keep alive through that bullshit. Using smaller, slower growing chickens is more responsible.

That's a drumlet

At thw current rrate of growth it would be larger than the earth in under 1500 years.

I don't necessarily want them bigger. I want them to have 12 legs and wings so there's more of the good parts.

A 2kg chicken is enough for four where two are children

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.

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.

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.

Or even Ho Mobile, as in a phone company

I like big scales

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.

Chickens often die shortly after mating. At least, the one I fucked did.