Corn fed chickens

[united]

When they say corn fed chickens ,does that means you feed them only corn ?

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Definitely not.

Corn can be and often is a major portion of their diet, but it can't be the only portion. It has to be used in the right amounts with other feed ingredients to provide balanced protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals. Especially with fast growing hybrid meat birds they can't live off only corn any more than we humans can.

.....Alan.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

I curious who "they" are? Where did you come across the saying Corn Fed Chickens?

 

[petrelline]

Corn fed chickens are marketed that way in the EU, and get a premium price. The cheap factory chickens there are raised almost entirely on wheat. Corn fed chickens are considered healthier and have yellower skin. There was a big scandal a few years back in the UK when a big supermarket chain was dyeing its chickens yellow and calling them corn fed when they weren't.

I don't know if anyone in the US is using this marketing technique since we have so much corn here anyhow and ALL our chickens are corn fed.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

Interesting, thanks! Please pardon my ignorance but "the EU"?

 

[jaku]

Quote:
Europe

 

[Festa X11]

The corn is added to their diet for the last 25 days before catch time and is added at a rate of 10% corn to their normal special food then they go onto 10% corn and 90% withdrawal feed for the last 2 weeks. And yes people pay a big premium for corn fed amongst other marketing types of poultry such as window barn raised and freedom foods standard.

 

[Illia]

My question is - Why? Here in the US, corn fed is practically all you have. . . It's the cheap "crappy" stuff, just like everything else corn related here. . . Hence the term "corn fed American"

 

[rufus]

Be aware though, corn in Europe does not always mean the same thing as it does in the US. We think of corn as being zea maize, but in Europe it may be referring to wheat, buckwheat or some other grain.

Rufus

 

[Festa X11]

Yes thats true maize is in their normal feed but the added corn is as Rufus said.

The cheap crappy stuff we have is grown in an intensive house with the birds having roughly 6-8sq inch per bird, the freedom foods standard has 10-12 inch per bird (unless the farm is being audited then it`s a bit more) window barn grown housing is between crappy and freedom foods with the addition of having perspex windows in the walls. Even free range isn`t what people are led to believe and neither is organic. Over here we have a lot of imported chicken from mainland Europe but their standards are somewhat vague.