The explanation behind this is actually pretty disturbing. Due to 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 capacity of a five year old.
4202 g
Submitted 10 months ago by ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world to [deleted]
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/5cd38dd1-a700-48c7-a3ba-e409b7934eff.jpeg
Comments
Jessica@discuss.tchncs.de 10 months ago
The_v@lemmy.world 10 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.
Electromechanical_Supergiant@lemmynsfw.com 10 months ago
For any Canadians reading this, adding hormones or steroids to meat and dairy animals has always been prohibited here for all types of livestock.
Antibiotics are allowed on sick cows and pigs but they can’t be used for dairy or meat until they’ve been off the antibiotics for a period of time that is supposed to be long enough to flush it from their system. Chickens are too short lived and antibiotics are prohibited if they are to be sold for human consumption.
You know how A&W advertises that their beef is free of added hormones and steroids? Well that’s actually true for all meat sold in Canada. A&W is just the only one advertising it. Pretty clever as campaign, actually.
Krukenberg@feddit.ch 10 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 10 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.
They’re big because they’ve been selectively bred to be big, docile, and stupid.
Smoogs@lemmy.world 10 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 10 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 🙄
kerrigan778@lemmy.world 10 months ago
It’s not hormones, non-medical antibiotic use is absolutely a contributing factor though.
LufyCZ@lemmy.world 10 months ago
What’s disturbing about it?
DillyDaily@lemmy.world 10 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.
eezeebee@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
It’s like the movie “Big”, except the chicken did not wish for it.
rayyy@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Growth hormones in your food - what could go wrong?
Xin_shill@lemm.ee 10 months ago
Vegan not lying to try to make a point, challenge level impossible
over_clox@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I dunno my dude, KFC chicken be shrinkin’…
ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world 10 months ago
That’s good. The fucking broilers these days eat eachother because they need the energy.
Enk1@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Heritage breeds are the way to go if you can find them. Taste better and typically more humanely raised.
CaptnNMorgan@reddthat.com 10 months ago
That’s a drumlet
over_clox@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I’ll be honest, I’ve never heard of a drumlet before I posted this thread.
But our KFC order was literally a 12 piece legs and thighs. So why we get this jank shit?
Shard@lemmy.world 10 months ago
In about 65 million years this guy will be the size of a T-Rex
chiliedogg@lemmy.world 10 months ago
At thw current rrate of growth it would be larger than the earth in under 1500 years.
SmoothIsFast@lemmy.world 10 months ago
They did the math They did the monster math
Raxiel@lemmy.world 10 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.
Kolanaki@yiffit.net 10 months ago
I don’t want them bigger. I want them to have 12 legs and wings so there’s more of the good parts.
Carlo@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
Ok, but for real, though? Actually, that’s a good idea. Factory chicken farms are already grotesque, but if we bring in Cronenberg and the ghost of H.R. Giger to design these monstrosities, it’ll put people off eating it entirely.
Not a veggo for the record; I just feel like I probably should be.
SmoothIsFast@lemmy.world 10 months ago
psud@lemmy.world 10 months ago
A 2kg chicken is enough for four where two are children
Annoyed_Crabby@monyet.cc 10 months ago
Took a long time to pokevolve.
Mighty@lemmy.world 10 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 10 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 10 months ago
Laying hens also are productive way beyond BH to their ancestors with 10-20 eggs takes a big toll on their bones. According to a study from the university of Kiel 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 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.
CADmonkey@lemmy.world 10 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 10 months ago
without decreasing the size of your flock. Read that as “without decreasing the size of your cock”
MeanEYE@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Ideal period is 7 weeks. Anything below that is not meaty enough, anything above is too old and stringy meat.
Agent641@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Chickens often die shortly after mating. At least, the one I fucked did.
XiELEd@lemmy.world 10 months ago
bruh
JustMy2c@lemm.ee 10 months ago
No. It is much, much, much worse.
I quote :
Broilers chickens are specially bred for fast growth and slaughtered when they weigh approximately four pounds, usually between seven and nine weeks of age. Birds between 12 and 20 weeks of age, typically weighing between five and ten pounds, are called roasters
ElBarto@sh.itjust.works 10 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?
whatwhatwutyut@midwest.social 10 months ago
Or even Ho Mobile, as in a phone company
ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Homo bi le
TheDeepState@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I like big breast.
ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world 10 months ago
lustyargonian@lemm.ee 10 months ago
I like big scales
LemmyIsFantastic@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Efficiency.
Teon@kbin.social 10 months ago
50! She's a tough old bird.
yamapikariya@lemmyfi.com 10 months ago
The same age
ImmaculateTaste@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 10 months ago
I’m biggest bird
postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 10 months ago
420 too!
XEAL@lemm.ee 10 months ago
This Pokemon has been evolving for half a century…
NotAPenguin@kbin.social 10 months ago
Go vegan
BananaOnionJuice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
No, we want to eat the hormone infused turkey chicken hybrid!
AnonWyo@startrek.website 10 months ago
Turducken would like a word.
JustMy2c@lemm.ee 10 months ago
How else we can grow Manboob?
Sorgan71@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I’m happy to eat meat if it tastes good. They are animals after all.
nicetomeetyouIMVEGAN@lemmings.world 10 months ago
Oh thanks.
Sorgan71@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I’m happy to eat meat if it tastes good. They are animals after all.
wafflez@lemmy.world 10 months ago
sensory pleasure doesn’t justify unnecesary pain and death
wafflez@lemmy.world 10 months ago
sensory pleasure doesn’t justify unnecesary pain and death
Socsa@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Everyone in Iceland just starved to death.