Very few people know anything about the poultry farming system and the poultry breeds destined for the food chain. Consumers of chicken meat and derivatives, however, can sharpen their knowledge on this subject, at least to be able to understand which among the information that reaches them, is true, truthful or false.
It is curious that a great many people, when asked directly, “Do you know the difference between chicken and hen?” do not know how to answer. And those who do answer are more likely to do so by grasping at straws.
How come? This happens mainly because we have become accustomed to buying the products of the poultry chain (and beyond) nice and ready and do not realize what needs to be organized to make life easy for us even when it comes to producing food.
Whether it’s meat or whether it’s eggs, we think we know something by reading the words “organic,” “free-range,” “free of antibiotics,” … but in reality we knew little before and we know little even after reading those brief wordings.
The poultry world (but farms in general) is constantly under siege by animal rights/environmental groups, and there is increasing confusion among consumers, despite the fact that they apparently get more “information” than they used to.
Misinformation, biased or partial information is always the cause of less informed orientations than we think we have. Consumer choice is mainly directed by advertising, which, more often than not, is limited to providing bland, superficial and sweetened claims about animal welfare.
A proof of the lack of knowledge about the “grassroots” poultry sector was a news story in which a farm hit by a bullet fired from a tank in an exercise, in addition to producing for the fact itself hilarity, bewilderment, concern, … it also initiated an unfortunately predictable instrumentalization of that information toward “the issue of cage use” (https://moreaboutchicken.com/cages-in-the-poultry-sector-do-we-know-what-they-are/ ). Indeed, in that case it became evident how many confuse chickens with hens, highlighting a particular misinformation, especially of some journalists, about this area.
Let us then try to repair the lack of information on this issue:
Over time, man has selected poultry breeds in order to obtain two main types:
- That of chickens proper, used for its meat
- that of laying hens, which the name itself indicates to be the derivation of crosses dedicated to egg production.
Broiler “chickens” naturally develop breast and thigh muscle masses, which is why they are also called “heavy breeds” (which Americans call “broilers”).
In contrast, “laying” hens have leaner muscle masses, which is why they are called “light breeds.“
Broilers and layers have parallel lives that resemble each other but never meet.
Breeding farms tend to specialize and, with few exceptions, those who produce broilers do not produce eggs for consumption and vice versa.
However, the “story” always begins with an egg.
The mother and father chicken generate fertilized eggs, also called hatching eggs.
The same thing happens with the mother and father of the laying hen, but as written above, it is a different breed/selection. Exactly as humankind does with other animals such as dogs, horses, cats, etc. that we are used to calling “purebred.” This practice is to allow certain characteristics of the selected animal to be genetically transferred to the offspring.
Each hatching egg generated is sent to a hatchery with several other eggs from which, after 21 days, chicks begin to emerge from the shell.
As in humankind, about half of the chicks are born male and the other half female–and this is where the first differences between heavy and light breeds begin.
Both male and female chickens are used for broilers; therefore, when we buy a chicken at the supermarket we may be faced with both a male and a female.
In laying hens, on the other hand, the commercial interest is only in females because, need I remind you, only they lay eggs.
Laying breeds grow very slowly, so males of these breeds cannot be used as broilers (for purely economic reasons). Exceptions are some special and niche products, such as cockerels or capons, where the reduced growth speed is not considered a problem but a quality.
From here on, chickens and layers follow distinctly different and particular paths.
Chickens are raised on a litter of wood shavings in simple, well-ventilated sheds equipped to promote rapid growth, and after about two months they reach “commercial” maturity, understood as the time scheduled for slaughter and transfer to the food chain. Chickens do not reach sexual maturity, which, in poultry, is reached around 5 months (this, for clarity, also applies to organic or free-range production).
Female chicks hatched from the eggs of laying hens have a more complex life span of about two years. They live for the first 5 months in weaning flocks where they grow to adulthood. Once they are ready to lay eggs, they are transferred to laying flocks for the remaining 16 months.
These farms are organized in a variety of ways: with enriched cages, with aviaries, with bedding and nest boxes that the laying hens use to lay eggs.
The different types of breeding and laying organization give rise to the classification that is listed by law on the shell with the numbers 0,1,2,3
The consumer eggs produced on these farms are then sent to packaging centers and from there directly to supermarket counters.