Content Warning Dead Chickens ⚠️ ⚠️ ⚠️
Terms for this post - Labhorn: Labratory strain of Leghorns (i made the word labhorn up)
Some thing I was really interested in with the Labhorns was comparing their growth and size differences since they are already the perfect candidates due to being lab chickens. This is such a small sample size so be aware that this is mostly for fun, observation, and speculation.
So me and my landlady got 4 labhorns each. She ended up with 3 cockerels and 1 pullet and I got 3 pullets and 1 cockerel. A perfect 50/50 split for our 8 all together. Only 3 birds were culled in total.
My landlady fed hers Grubbly Farms 18% All Flock Crumbles
I fed mine Naturewise Silkie and Ornamental Starter Grower with 24% protein.
Things to note.
My landlady's birds were smaller in weight, size, and bone length.
My landlady's were also paler skiined and not as yellow.
All culled birds were healthy and had no organ abnormalities.
All culled birds had healthy typical fat deposits and muscling.
My birds were on grass daily in their run and moved to fresh grass often.
Landlady's were confined to a bedded run with supervised free ranging time.
My landlady's had a potent chicken/gamey flavor in the legs likely due to their activity since my boy was a bit lazier.
Down below will be a picture of my cockerel on the right and my landlady's on the left. The birds were culled using the broomstick method. There is no blood or gore just two chickens laying next to each other.
Id like you to pay attention to the size of the heads, body, and leg length compared to each other. These size differences to me really goes to show how much their feed can effect a birds growth and development.