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In the first week of a broiler's life, it can grow up to 300 percent of its body size. A nine-week-old broiler averages over 9 pounds (4 kg) in body weight. At nine weeks, a hen will average around 7 pounds (3.2 kg) and a rooster will weigh around 12 pounds (5.5 kg), having a nine-pound (4 kg) average. Broilers are not raised in cages.
Per Lisa, a chicken lays an egg roughly once every 26 hours, which is roughly once a day. So, to get 12 per day, you’d need 12 hens. That said, numbers will also vary based on a hen’s age and ...
Such "day-old chicks" are sometimes sold as food for captive and falconers birds of prey. [21] The old hens also have little commercial value. Thus, the main sources of poultry meat a hundred years ago (spring chickens and stewing hens) have both been entirely supplanted by meat-type broiler chickens.
As of 2011 in the US, broiler chickens has an FCR of 1.6 based on body weight gain, and mature in 39 days. [25] At around the same time the FCR based on weight gain for broilers in Brazil was 1.8. [25] The global average in 2013 is around 2.0 for weight gain (live weight) and 2.8 for slaughtered meat (carcass weight). [26]
Squabs grow rapidly, but are slow to fledge and are ready to leave the nest at 26 to 30 days weighing about 500 g (1 lb 2 oz). By this time, the adult pigeons will have laid and be incubating another pair of eggs and a prolific pair should produce two squabs every four weeks during a breeding season lasting several months.
Mass production of chicken meat is a global industry and at that time, only two or three breeding companies supplied around 90% of the world's breeder-broilers. The total number of meat chickens produced in the world was nearly 47 billion in 2004; of these, approximately 19% were produced in the US, 15% in China, 13% in the EU25 and 11% in Brazil.
On average, a chicken lays one egg a day, but not on every day of the year. This varies with the breed and time of year. In 1900, average egg production was 83 eggs per hen per year. In 2000, it was well over 300. In the United States, laying hens are butchered after their second egg laying season.
One indication of the effect of broilers' rapid growth rate on welfare is a comparison of the usual mortality rate for standard broiler chickens (1% per week) with that for slower-growing broiler chickens (0.25% per week) and with young laying hens (0.14% per week); the mortality rate of the fast-growing broilers is seven times the rate of ...