Broiler Observation #2

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I began my second broiler observation on October 12, 2016; at this point, the chickens were 34 days old. I started my observation with room 8, which is the high stocking density, bright lighting room. The first thing I noticed in this room was that sexual dimorphism has now set in, meaning it is very clear which side contains the males and which side contains the females. The males are now bigger and more developed than the female chickens. The males have combs and wattles that are much more developed. The chickens also now have completely all white feathers, whereas before, they had mostly white feathers, but had some yellow feathers left. The litter is a lot darker than it was 10 days ago. In this high stocking density room there was not any free litter space in the room; the birds were pretty packed in this room. Some of the males in this room were pecking at each other and flapping their wings at one another. I am not sure if this was the male chickens trying to assert dominance, but it was interesting to see. Both the males and females had dirty litter on their breasts from their breasts resting on the litter. The chickens in this room were very active and were consuming a lot of feed and water.

The next room I visited was room 9. This room is a low stocking density room with bright lighting. Just like in room 8, you could now easily tell the difference between males and females due to sexual dimorphism. A huge difference when comparing a low stocking density room and a high stocking density room was the space. The chickens in room 9 had so much extra space when compared to room 8. Also, the litter was not as dirty. In this room all of the chickens had room to eat in the feeder, it never seemed like any of them were having trouble with overcrowding at the feeder like in room 8.

Next, I observed room 10, which is a replication of room 9, so it is also a low stocking density room with bright lighting. The conditions in room 10 were very similar to room 9. There was a lot of space compared to the high stocking density rooms. These birds were very big compared to 10 days ago. The birds in this room were very active and chirping, flapping their wings at one another, and consuming a lot of water and feed.

Then I observed room 11, which is a low stocking density room with dim lighting. The birds in this room were up and moving. In this room the birds were definitely larger than they were 10 days ago, but they do not seem as big as the bright lighting room. There was an ample amount of space available in this room. The birds were lying around mostly and did not seem as active as the previous rooms.

Lastly, I viewed the replication of room 11 in room 12, which is also a low stocking density room with dim lighting. The chickens in room 12 behaved very similarly to the birds in room 11. There was plenty of floor space available and no signs of overcrowding. The birds in this room seemed a bit sluggish and were mostly lying around.

Throughout these observation periods I was able to visually see the rapid growth of these broilers. Within 10 days these birds had greatly grown muscle and also sexual dimorphism had set in and I was able to easily see the difference between the male and female chickens. Also, I was able to see the males beginning to assert dominance with one another. When I was observing 10 days ago, the birds were active but did not interact with each other as much as they did on day 34. Although I do not know for sure, I could imagine that a commercial setting would be very different than our experience on the Auburn research farm. Our birds had a very luxurious grow out period compared to a commercial setting. One large difference is that all rooms in a commercial grow out setting are going to be high density stocking because they are going to want to use every square foot they can so they can grow more birds, whereas, some of our birds were in a low stocking density room. In addition to stocking density, our birds were started on fresh clean litter, this does not happen very often in a commercial setting. By having fresh litter our birds did not have to initially worry about ammonia and it also led to better quality of our broilers because we did not experience a large number of ammonia burns or blisters. Although the birds in commercial settings are taken care of, the birds that we reared at the Auburn research farm had some nicer accommodations.