Broiler chickens are chickens raised for meat. On factory farms, they're usually slaughtered when they're just 5-6 weeks old.
Chickens reared for meat are among the most farmed animals in the world, yet their suffering is largely hidden away from public view. Broiler chickens lead short, often painful lives within factory farms. As we take a look into the lives of broiler chickens, you might think twice about serving these birds at your dinner table.
What are broiler chickens?
Chickens raised for food fall into two categories - broilers and layers. While layers are hens (female chickens) that lay eggs, broiler chickens are chickens raised specifically for meat.
The breeds of chickens used to produce meat have been genetically selected to grow a huge amount of breast muscle rapidly to make the most profit by the time they are killed at around 47 days old.
What's the difference between broilers and layers?
Both male and female chickens are used for meat production and are typically reared in sheds. Layers are female and may be reared in cages or sheds.
While broiler chickens have been selectively bred to grow larger breast muscle, layers have been forced to to produce high volumes of eggs. Both suffer from health conditions due to the way their bodies have been manipulated for profit.
How are broiler chickens raised?
Broiler chickens begin their lives in hatcheries, where thousands of eggs are incubated and hatched.
Broiler chickens don't ever get to see their parents, since these birds are kept in separate breeding facilities. When chicks are about a day old, they are placed onto conveyor belts where they are vaccinated, either through spraying or injections.
The conveyor belts then drop them into transport crates, each of which is about the size of a large desk drawer. Crates of these small, young chicks are stacked on top of one another and placed into a truck for transport to the broiler shed, where the birds will spend the majority of their shortened lives.
Broiler farms are typically large sheds where chickens are kept indoors at all times. These sheds can accommodate hundreds of thousands of birds.
Can broiler chickens lay eggs?
Chickens begin to lay eggs before they are six months old. Sadly, broiler chickens don't get to reach this age and are slaughtered before reaching puberty at just five or six weeks old. Therefore they do not lay eggs.
However, the parent birds of broiler chickens do lay fertilised eggs. These are known as broiler breeders. Broiler breeders are often put through various mutilations, such as beak trimming and comb dubbing, where portions of the beak and comb (crest) are removed.
Broiler breeders are kept in sheds similar to those for laying hens, however it is a mixed-sex flock to allow for natural mating behaviour and fertilising. Typically there will be one male for every ten hens. Eggs are collected and sent to hatcheries, where the lives of broiler chickens begin.
How long do chickens live?
Chickens can live for many years. Matilda, a Red Pyle chicken, broke a Guinness World Record for the world’s oldest living chicken, reaching the age of 16 years. Even though Matilda’s lifespan was exceptional, the typical lifespan of backyard chickens can be between 5-12 years
The lives of broiler chickens are cut drastically short.
Within factory farming, however, the lives of broiler chickens are cut drastically short. Birds can be slaughtered anywhere from 28 days to 81 (if they are organic) days old.
In the UK, the typical slaughter age is around six weeks. Despite looking like adults, due to their accelerated growth, factory-farmed birds are still just chicks when they are killed. In natural conditions they would still be with their mother.
This is just one of a number of health, welfare, and environmental issues created by raising broiler chickens on factory farms. Some of the most glaring problems are discussed below.
Welfare issues
Within any factory farm, regardless of the species being farmed, the conditions are so unnatural that they give rise to a host of welfare issues.
Broiler chickens endure some of the cruellest abuses; confined to cramped, indoor barns for the duration of their lives, only to be killed via slaughter methods known to cause significant suffering. Below are some of the factors that give rise to welfare issues in the broiler industry.
Overcrowding
In the wild, chickens live in small flocks, often with their own chicks. But broiler chicken sheds look very different. These sheds often hold tens, or even hundreds, of thousands, of birds.
Chickens are kept in such high concentrations that each bird is only given about as much space as a single A4 piece of paper to live in. Their movement is restricted and their ability to rest is also affected, since they are often jostled by other birds when lying down.
Transport
Broiler chickens are transported twice in their lives: once as chicks, when they are transferred from hatcheries to broiler sheds, and finally from barns to the slaughterhouse at around six weeks of age.
This means that the chickens have to be caught to be put in crates for transport. Catching is often manual, which involves a team of people who pick up the birds and carry them upside down, by a single or two legs. This process causes the chickens stress and fear, as well as physical harm. Chickens often suffer bruises, broken bones, dislocated joints, and other injuries.
Transportation is a significant source of stress for birds at both stages of their lives. Transport crates are about the size of large desk drawers and do not give birds enough space to be transported comfortably or safely.
As they are taken to the farm at around just a day old, the chicks are highly susceptible to heat stress as they can’t regulate their own temperature. The crowded, cramped conditions of transport crates are only made worse by the psychological stress of a foreign environment and the lack of a mother hen.
Slaughter
The majority of the poultry (80%) in the UK are now killed by using gas.
Some are still slaughtered in an electrical water-bath system. This means that chickens are hung, while conscious, by their legs upside down on a moving metal shackle line and their heads pass through an electrified water-bath before having their throats cut.
Water-bath stunning was created to allow fast processing of birds, however there are many welfare problems associated with this stunning system.
The birds’ legs are compressed during shackling, causing pain, especially in birds with thicker legs or those suffering from painful lameness due to leg diseases, bone dislocations or fractures.
Hanging upside down understandably increases the levels of stress that birds are subjected to during the shackling process.
Rough shackling can cause the chickens to flap their wings, leading to dislocations and bone breakages. Pre-stun electric shocks can occur if the birds’ wings make contact with the water-bath before their heads do.
It has been shown that electrical stunning is often not completely effective. Birds may not be properly stunned because they raise their heads and miss the water, or the currents can be too low to cause unconsciousness.
It has been shown that electrical stunning is not completely effective.
This means that a chicken can still be conscious when their throat is cut.
What health issues do broiler chickens have?
Many health issues that arise in broiler chickens originate from the selective breeding process. This is where the industry will use breeding to create chickens with traits that are desirable for commercial purposes, like a large breast muscle that grows very fast.
While rapid growth might be ideal for companies’ profits, it causes a host of painful and debilitating conditions for broiler chickens.
The Better Chicken Commitment encourages companies to commit to purchasing chickens from suppliers that do not make use of rapid-growth breeds.
Cardiovascular problems
Broiler chickens are particularly prone to cardiovascular issues, including heart failure.
Sudden death syndrome and ascites syndrome are the most common heart conditions suffered from. These heart issues are mainly prevalent due to rapid growth and selective breeding, as well as overeating. This overeating is encouraged since larger birds bring in more money for companies. Heart arrhythmias can also be caused by a number of factors, including stress or other diseases.
The selective breeding of broiler chickens puts an unnatural strain on their skeletal systems.
The selective breeding of broiler chickens to grow larger breasts also puts an unnatural strain on their skeletal systems. The heavier weight of breast muscles, and overall larger body weight, can put stress on the legs (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-09664-6), leading to lameness.
Burns to the skin
Burns to the skin are common in factory farmed chickens. They lie for long periods due to lameness or lack of space. Their bedding is covered with their faeces as it is never changed.
If it gets too wet, ammonia levels can get very high. This causes painful sores on the bird’s breast, legs and foot pads, often known as breast blisters, hock burns and foot pad dermatitis.
Fast-growing breeds are more prone to these conditions as they rest for longer periods because of their poor leg health and overly large breast muscle.
Environmental issues
Chicken waste is a primary culprit when it comes to environmental pollution from poultry factories. The waste generates harmful greenhouse gas emissions, most notably ammonia, methane, and sulfur dioxide.
Factory farms also cause water pollution, including eutrophication—which occurs when a high load of nutrients decreases oxygen levels in a body of water, resulting in the mass death of marine life—and acidification.
Ammonia
Ammonia is a toxic gas generated by waste that can cause serious illnesses for birds and farm workers alike.
On factory farms, broiler chickens develop burns when they come into frequent contact with their own waste. This happens frequently given the crowded conditions and their poor leg health means they are forced to sit more. When inhaled, high concentrations of ammonia can cause respiratory problems for both birds and farm workers.
How many chickens are killed for meat??
Each week in the UK, an average of over 21 million chickens are slaughtered for meat. This means that, each year, one billion individuals are killed.
Chickens are by far the most farmed and slaughter land animal. In fact, 95% of all farmed land animals in the UK are chickens raised for meat, and 90% of these are raised on intensive farms.
What you can do to help chickens?
Meat consumption in the UK has risen over the last few decades and the average Brit consumes 35kg of poultry meat each year. This means that the farming industry is huge, and powerful. In 2019, the UK production value of poultry meat was £2.7 billion.
The drive to produce more meat and make more profit has led to more and more animal suffering. And a change is necessary.
Reducing or cutting out your consumption of animal products is a good start for individual change.
But we know the world isn;t going to stop eating chickens overnight. So to alleviate the suffering of the millions of animals suffering, we need a change to the way we raise them.
That's why we're pressuring companies to sign the Better Chicken Commitment—because broiler chickens, like all animals, deserve better.
If you'd like to find out more about our work to improve the lives of chickens, why not sign up to recieve emails from us? We'll send you news on our campaigns, as well as interesting facts about the animals we love.