this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2024
574 points (98.0% liked)

Funny: Home of the Haha

5593 readers
373 users here now

Welcome to /c/funny, a place for all your humorous and amusing content.

Looking for mods! Send an application to Stamets!

Our Rules:

  1. Keep it civil. We're all people here. Be respectful to one another.

  2. No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia or any other flavor of bigotry. I should not need to explain this one.

  3. Try not to repost anything posted within the past month. Beyond that, go for it. Not everyone is on every site all the time.


Other Communities:

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
all 42 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

52

Quick mafs.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

That's not just any chicken, that's The Chicken of Tomorrow!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

its putting on some weight thats for sure

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

What if chickens seem simple because they share a single hive mind?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago (1 children)

In the 1950s, a competition was held to create the "chicken of tomorrow" through selective breeding. This is the path that got us to the modern broiler chicken. Unlike their recent ancestors (and much unlike their distant ones) these birds grow so large so quickly that they are prone to health issues and disease.

This is a quick and interesting read: https://exhibits.library.cornell.edu/backyard-revival-american-heritage-poultry/feature/the-chicken-of-tomorrow

[–] [email protected] -5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I saw a nutjiub once protesting selective breeding, calling it 'Eugenics for Plants and Animals', saying we should all return to the planet.

He returned to the planet pretty fast after I pushed him in a well.

Source: Entirely made up

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I'm all for selectively breeding crops. It's selectively breeding animals where it gets ethically murky for me.

Should we be supporting the breeding of snub-nosed dog breeds, for instance, considering the respiratory issues they have? What about broiler chickens that can't stand up and are prone to cardiac issues? What about egg-laying hens that commonly develop osteoporosis, egg yolk peritonitis, and cloacal prolapse? Cows bred to produce so much milk they display severe discomfort and are prone to mastitis?

Like I said, the lines get blurred quite a bit when you have to also consider the health and comfort of animals.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I think selective breeding of animals is just as bad as arranged marriage.

Wait a minute, are selective breeding and arranged marriage the same thing?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I'm pretty sure that's a really the same chicken 3 times. I've raised quite a few chickens and grew up around neighbors raising them, though the grayscale makes it hard to be sure.

As someone else pointed out: the comb (head piece) is missing from the first 2 pictures:

Pic 1 looks like a chicken at maybe a month old or so, maybe a bit younger?

Pic 2 is 3ish months

Pic 3 is 6-8 months, basically adult

this is what one of my one month olds looks like right now, basically pic 1

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Regardless of whether they used the same chicken for the photoshoot, these images pretty accurately depict how drastically broiler chickens have changed through the latter half of the 20th century.

Prior to the 1940s, chicken wasn't a super popular meat, and it was generally old egg-layers that were killed for meat. As demand for chicken grew, broilers were selectively bred for feed conversion, weight and time to slaughter.

The modern broiler chicken grows to an enormous size in a very short (6-8 week) timeframe. They also tend have some pretty bad health issues as a result: impaired mobility, cardiac issues and a compromised immune system.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Hmmm, roughly doubling in size every 20-30 years. Fortunately it should be at least a few centuries before we really have to worry.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

Actually, chickens are already so big, they'll die from the weight before getting to adulthood.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

"You mean super ultra mega chicken? Shh! He is legend!"

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

If all adult chickens had to live with the "1957" version which I understand to only be a young chicken, then I think we'd be screwed. Remember these things are the descendants of dinosaurs. A rooster that lean, in it's adult stage, would likely fuck you up more than a jackrabbit with the untrimmed nails of a lop-ear. And be almost as agile in avoiding your retaliations. Like geese and fast zombies shacked up.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

Most chickens raised today (mostly in factory farms) grow so big that sometimes their legs succumb to their weight. And they can't move anymore.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

in a few years you’ll be able to feed a whole family with just one chicken

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

I mean... You can now, plus some veg.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

So it's a ghoul then.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

At some point it looks like a final boss, towering over us with laser eyes and an angry Dr. Wily shouting obscenities piloting it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

I love this meme, makes me laugh every time!

[–] [email protected] 28 points 6 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

'As a paper in the journal Poultry Science puts it, if humans grew as fast as broilers, “a 6.6 lbs. newborn baby would weigh 660 lbs. after 2 months.”'

So percentage weight isn't a perfect stat for cross species comparisons I understand that but holy shit that's messed up. And it's not like theres no other evidence of this being insanely unhealthy for the species..

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Thanks. That was very interesting.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Great article. Also pretty sad to see what we've ended up with in the name of business. Maybe if humanity survived another few hundred years we will look back on this time of corporations with disgust.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago

Humanity will survive. Our current society may not.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

As just another form of creeping oppression, leading to a renewal of absolutism.

I wonder if we ever find a system that doesn't require a constant fighting for freedom and basic rights.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago (3 children)

So why does the one on the right have the thing on its head and the others dont

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Some broiler chickens are 6 weeks when slaughtered. That's the most extreme they get... So far.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Balut exists.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago (1 children)

These look like they're taken at different stages in a chicken's life. The more developed head thingy and size of the bird is because it's older.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

That's exactly what i was getting at

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago