Welcome to the chicken simulator, where you can try your hand at chicken farming!

Chickens are an important source of protein in Australia…did you know nearly 70% of Australian households serve chicken meat at least twice a week! All fresh and frozen raw chicken available in Australia is born, bred and raised in Australia. Chickens in Australia are not fed hormones. Chicken size occurs naturally due to selective breeding and optimal nutrition. Chicken meat has the lowest environmental footprint of any meat. With the Australian poultry industry being highly regulated we can maintain high standards across all areas of growing, production, distribution and consumption.

Test your farming skills and see if you can set the optimum conditions to get the healthiest and most efficient chicken. Chickens need just the right amount of light and protein at an optimum temperature. Check out the facts below as these will help you to grow the best chicken! To get started choose the age of your chicken and then choose the lighting, temperature and % crude protein. Click go. See what the chicken live weight and carcass weight are. Is this ideal for the age? If not – try again!

• Live weight refers to the weight of the chicken before it is slaughtered and prepared as a carcass. Live weight is important as it can help determine growth performance, reproductive efficiency, health status with relation to age and is also required for the management of husbandry activities.
• Carcass weight for this experiment refers to the chicken being bled, eviscerated and plucked. Carcass weight is a major factor in the determination of the final carcass value.
• Protein is a vital nutrient for poultry as it plays a significant role in growth, egg production, immunity and many other biological factors. Excess or lack of crude protein can cause various health issues which can lead to management, welfare and income issues.
• Lighting is an important factor for the poultry industry as it stimulates and controls feed intake as well as can affect some behavioural activities. Lighting can increase development, weight gain and feed efficiency conversion if the lighting is ideal. Lighting can also help to regulate reproduction cycles and may help to reach maturity faster.
• Temperature is an important factor when considering how to get chickens to an optimal weight. Both chilling and overheating can result in poor growth, poor feed conversion and an increase susceptibility to disease.

All three variables are important to control in order to reach the optimal weight at the different ages. If the variables aren’t at the optimum then there are range of issues from health and welfare to management and income losses.