Had a presentation from an industry poultry veterinarian. Just found this little bit interesting.

Average Size of a Chicken House: about 44 ft x 400 ft
Average number of chickens per house: about 23k

Average Chickens/sq.ft : roughly 1.5

Now think how small a growing chicken is. Most chickens are taken to slaughter at between 4.5-6 lbs, so we aren't talking fully grown chickens either.

Until a very late stage of growth...that's really not that crowded at all.

Some other facts from a previous poultry industry class:

Houses are maintained at around 75 F and well ventilated to promote respiratory health and disease prevention

Steroids are NOT used in the chicken industry.

The industry has begun to slow the growth of the chickens and increase vit.D/Calcium intake in chicken diets to prevent bone-growth issues.




I'm definitely not saying the industry is perfect. But it's also no where near as horrible as people make it out to be.