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What is a broiler chicken?
A broiler chicken is any chicken bred for their meat. Chickens reared for food are selectively bred to grow plumper and develop more muscle – specifically breast muscle, which is the most popular and pricey cut.
Modern chickens, otherwise known as domestic fowl, are descendants of their wild, South-East Asian ancestors, primarily the red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus), domesticated around 8,000 years ago. Studies show that the senses and behaviours of domestic chickens are similar to those of the red jungle fowl, albeit more docile and less fearful of humans than their ancestors. They’re still motivated to perform a range of foraging and grooming behaviours, including pecking, scratching in the litter, perching, exploring and dustbathing.
Most broilers are reared in large, closed buildings where temperature, artificial lighting, ventilation, food and water are controlled to ensure the birds grow efficiently. In well-managed indoor systems chickens can be cared for to higher welfare standards, but unfortunately the majority aren't and they have very little quality of life.
Then they’re killed for their meat. Around 91 million UK broiler chickens are slaughtered each month.
Broiler chicken breeds
There are three breeds of chicken that dominate the entire global chicken market, as they’ve been selectively bred to grow as big and as fast as possible, requiring the least amount of feed. These are:
- Cobb 500
- Ross 308
- Hubbard Flex
We wholeheartedly disagree with the way these chickens are bred and reared. The RSPCA’s welfare standards for meat chickens – which must be met on RSPCA Assured members’ farms – only allow slower-growing breeds.
How old are chickens when they’re slaughtered?
Chicken meat production systems
After hatching, day-old chicks are transported from the hatchery to the rearing farm. Most meat chickens in the UK are raised in indoor systems. Some of these are lower-welfare systems – sometimes referred to as factory farms – while others are higher-welfare systems with more space, slower-growing breeds and opportunities for chickens to express natural behaviours. Some chickens are also reared in free-range or organic systems, where birds have access to the outdoors.
Indoor systems
Most meat chickens are reared in indoor systems; in large, closed buildings, where temperature, artificial lighting, ventilation, food and water are carefully controlled.
Typically, around 25,000 birds are housed together within a building, but some can house as many as 50,000 birds – there can be several buildings on a farm. The flocks are reared on a floor covered in wood shavings, which are generally not cleaned and replaced until the chickens are sent to slaughter.
Lower-welfare farms use chicken breeds that have been selected to grow very fast. Because of this rapid growth, these birds are much more likely to suffer from severe health and welfare issues, including leg and heart problems. These systems also have lower light levels, which encourage the birds to eat more and discourage activity, which maximises their growth rate.
Higher-welfare indoor systems
There are, however, higher-welfare indoor systems, where broilers have more space and slower-growing breeds are used. While only a small proportion of meat chickens are reared in these improved conditions (2.34% as of 2024), their standard of living is significantly greater. Higher-welfare systems are those that meet our RSPCA meat chicken welfare standards and the requirements of the Better Chicken Commitment.
Improved indoor systems are similar to regularly indoor rearing, with the additional benefits of:
- Fewer birds per square metre: Providing them with more space to express their natural behaviours.
- Environmental enrichment: Such as straw bales for the birds to peck at.
- Slower-growing breeds selected: This means chickens live longer and may suffer from fewer health problems.
Free-range and organic
You may have heard of free-range eggs (eggs produced by laying hens that have continuous access to an outdoor space) but meat chickens can also be free-range chickens, reared in systems where they can access an additional outdoor area for part of their lives.
The law requires free-range and organic systems to meet certain requirements, such as the amount of space in the building and the age of the birds at slaughter.
Free-range systems provide broilers with:
- More space: With lower stocking densities (fewer chickens in one space) than intensive indoor systems, chickens have more room to express themselves.
- Outside access: They’re given daytime access to an outdoor environment, allowing them to roam.
- Longer lives: Free-range broilers are usually slower-growing breeds, therefore taken to slaughter at a later age (approximately 56 days old) with a lower risk of the health issues associated with fast-growing breeds.
Organic rearing systems, also known as ‘traditional free-range’, are similar to free-range systems, but with more benefits. Organic systems include:
- Even more space: Providing lower stocking densities than free-range systems – at least 4m² per bird is required outdoors.
- Even more outside access: Organic-reared broilers must have daily access to the outdoors for at least one third of their lives, and the range should be mainly covered with vegetation.
- Even longer lives: They’re slaughtered at a minimum of 81 days of age.
The proportion of organic production systems used is very small, representing less than 1% of broiler rearing systems in the UK.
Higher chicken welfare
Every kind of animal deserves kindness, access to food and water, freedom to move, and the chance to express their natural behaviours – which is why we’re working harder than ever to ensure meat chickens get the same. Chickens like to roam and forage, expressing their natural and inquisitive behaviours. With little room to move, their mental and physical health suffers.
Their natural behaviours:
- Dustbathing: This is very important for their physical and mental wellbeing. It helps them remove parasites, keeps their skin and feathers in good condition and their body temperature comfortable.
- Perching: Chickens like to roost on perches at night with their flockmates. In the wild, this behaviour protects them from predators and also helps conserve body heat.
- Comfort and grooming: These behaviours include feather ruffling, head scratching, body shaking, wing stretching and flapping.
- Exploring: Chickens like to explore their surroundings, for example, by pecking at objects and scratching at the ground to unearth things in the soil.
- Vocalisation: When chickens aren't provided with access to something they need, such as a nest site or appropriate dustbathing material, they often make more noise out of frustration. Sometimes they produce a specific sound known as a 'gakel-call'. Chickens also vocalise to communicate with their flockmates, to socialise and as a warning.
Their reality in lower-welfare indoor systems:
- Overcrowded conditions: This stops them moving freely, extending their wings or exercising. Overcrowding makes problems such as lameness and skin diseases much more common.
- Lack of environmental enrichment: A stimulating, enriched environment (for example, containing straw bales, perches and objects to peck at) encourages birds to be more active, helping to keep them healthy. However, most chickens don’t have access to these.
- Artificial lighting instead of daylight: Chickens have well-developed colour vision, designed for brightly-lit conditions. Daylight is required for chickens to use this sense to their full potential, however meat chickens are kept inside dim and artificially lit buildings.
The RSPCA is working in a number of different ways to improve the welfare of meat chickens:
Research projects: Our research has led to life-changing breakthroughs for chickens, including an RSPCA review into the use of carbon dioxide gas used for the slaughtering of meat chickens, leading to strict concentration requirements.
Advocacy work: We work closely with the government and food retailers, calling on supermarkets to sign up to The Better Chicken Commitment and commit to raising welfare standards across their whole supply chain of chicken.
Campaigning: Calling for broiler chicken welfare to be a priority. Sign the open letter and help us fight for better chicken standards.
On RSPCA Assured farms, chickens have more opportunity to express natural behaviours, from pecking and exploring to interacting with enrichment like straw bales. When you choose products with the RSPCA Assured label, you’re supporting farms working to standards designed to give animals a better quality of life.
RSPCA meat chicken welfare standards
We strongly encourage all chicken producers to adopt the RSPCA Welfare Standards for meat chickens, which we’ve developed to ensure that higher standards of animal welfare are met at all stages of the chicken's life. These standards are developed by the RSPCA Farm Animals Department, informed by scientific evidence and practical farming experience, and regularly reviewed to ensure they remain relevant and up-to-date.
Our standards address all the key areas affecting chicken welfare, for example:
- Ensuring there’s sufficient space and facilities for chickens to perform natural and active behaviours.
- Requiring the use of slower-growing higher-welfare breeds, to help prevent welfare issues which can result from fast growth, such as lameness.
- Providing environmental enrichment such as straw bales, perches and pecking objects, and natural light.
The standards do not allow shackling while the birds are conscious prior to killing, or gas killing systems for slaughter.
These welfare standards ensure improvements and non-negotiable requirements for both indoor and free-range production systems. Our aim is to improve the lives of more chickens, while providing higher-welfare chicken at a range of affordable price points.
How you can help
If you eat meat, eggs or dairy products and are concerned about welfare, look out for products carrying the RSPCA Assured logo. RSPCA Assured is the RSPCA’s farm assurance and food labelling scheme that aims to ensure animals are reared, handled, transported and killed according to strict RSPCA welfare standards.
If more consumers insist on higher welfare products, more supermarkets will want to stock them. This will encourage more farmers, hauliers and abattoirs to improve their practices and ultimately improve farm animals’ quality of life.
You can find supermarkets that stock RSPCA Assured labelled chicken here. If your supermarket doesn't stock RSPCA Assured labelled chicken, you can let them know you'd like to buy it here.
Farmed animals deserve better lives
Low welfare farming is the single biggest animal welfare issue on the planet. But there’s small changes we can all make to help tackle animal suffering on this huge scale.
How I can make a change
