When I ran a farm store back in the '70's, it took 19 weeks to produce a
broiler chicken.
Nowadays, I have friends who slaughter chickens at 5-1/2 to 6 weeks.  The
food hasn't changed to any extent, but selective breeding has produced
incredibly fast-growing chickens!

Of course, these chickens are not bred for feral survival, and I doubt that
they could compete with "wild type."  However, this shows what sort of
incredible "progress" can be made in animal breeding.  Perhaps Pete should
have started this discussion with chickens rather than cows--as the "bra"
thing appears to be distracting some of the List.

Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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