Chickens are much bigger today than they were 60 years ago.
At first you might think chicken farmers cheated with growth hormones or that they were genetically modified in a lab. That was my initial guess.
According to this study published in the Poultry Science Journal, even after adjusting for chemical cheating, chickens got this this way mostly through selective breeding, a fast reproduction cycle, and genes that reinforce selective breeding.
Farmers only let the biggest hens and roosters produce chicks. When you have 2 or more batches a year, in 60 years you have 120 cycles of selective improvement. This strategy has been used by breeders for centuries but in the last 60 years, the process has been perfected.
The effects of compounding small improvements over time leads to big changes in growth.
As well, every once in a while you get a significant jump or new strain of bird.
But this is not about the ethics of chicken farming or even chicken farming. It is not about the benefits of organic or vegan choices. Nor is it about how to best cook a chicken. Or even the fact there is a poultry journal.
This is definitely not about the Chicken Dance.
This about how you can use this strategy to grow your business.
The Big Chicken Growth Strategy
So here are the 9 secrets to this strategy:
- Know what you want.
- Find what works.
- Encourage and reinforce it.
- Cull what doesn’t work.
- Get the entire team contributing to the improvements.
- Get the habits into the genes or culture of your organization.
- Success breeds success.
- Reproduce the results.
- Repeat in short cycles.
Over time your business will produce bigger chickens that generate more profit.
Even if you don’t sell chickens at all.
