Feed for best tasting meat?

[cakachur]

This is our first try with meat birds and I wonder, what feed should I go for to create the best tasting meat? That is the whole idea, right? Backyard chickens should taste better, not just be fed the same thing they are getting at the factories. Other than free ranging, and various treats and fresh vegetables, is there a product designed to maximize meat flavor? Thanks.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Best is such a nebulous word, we all have our own preferences. Are you raising Cornish X or chickens that can be butchered later? Age can have a noticeable effect on flavor, especially cockerels going through puberty. Some of us like that flavor, some don't.

How are you going to cook them, with herbs and spices? You just might hide any subtle flavors you get from what you feed them. I don't know what to suggest you feed them, maybe herbs if you grow them and they will actually eat them. I would not feed fish very close to butcher day. This might be a great time to use trial and error, see if you notice a difference.

Though i like the flavor of my older dual purpose birds I don't raise them for flavor. I raise them so I know where my meat comes from, how it was fed and raised. It would be less expensive to just buy chicken at the store and flavor it when I cook it.

 

[Trotamundos]

My neighbour recommended cracked maize 'para mucho sabor' I will soon find out as I have 6 young cockerels nearly ready.

 

[snow5164]

I doubt you’ll notice a meat flavour , you might notice if you feed them too much fat !

Getting good meat with a nice amount of fat is all about consistency and the proper nutrition. I feed one bag of starter then they are on 18% grower til butcher day

 

[Geena]

My neighbour recommended cracked maize 'para mucho sabor' I will soon find out as I have 6 young cockerels nearly ready.

In my experience if you finish them with some cracked corn you'll mostly just get a LOT of extra fat. Once I tried finishing with around 50% meat bird pellets and 50% whole oats on some pasture raised birds, and they seemed to take on a slightly nutty flavor.

 

[potatoesgonnapotate]

So I think the feed I was giving my Cornish crosses contributed to them being a little more gamey than the red rangers that I had out on grass sooner. It could also be the breed, but next year will be a year of experimenting with that. The barred rocks I just butchered were actually the fattiest ones I've butchered of the 4 breeds I tried this year (Cornish cross, red ranger, sagitta, and barred rock). They were also the oldest so that could have something to do with it. I am crazy, yes...but I wanted to try the 4 to see if the flavor was significantly better with one or the other. So far the red rangers and Cornish crosses we've eaten have all been great, and with the Cornish crosses being significantly less expensive than everything else I tried, I think I'll stick to those for meat until I'm trying to run a fully self sufficient homestead with a flock that I hatch my own dp birds from. I do give everyone some scratch grain in the evenings, and I give them lots of extra produce from the garden, weeds, and grass clippings. We have a peach tree so they love when the extra ones fall, or when I give them one that has a bug in it. I do joke about pre-seasoning them by feeding them things that I'd season meat with, but I'm not sure that it actually holds any weight.

 

[Tennessee Great Granny]

Seems like most of the replies to this think it's all in how you season the birds. Well I'm old enough that I remember how the old time farmers grew the best and most flavorful chickens and turkeys. I used to love to have dinner at the farmers home across the street. They corn fed their birds just before butchering. Blanche - the farmers wife always made mashed potatoes from home grown potatoes (the chicken fertilizer creates the best flavor potatoes and squash and melons etc.) and her hubby always grew the best table ready field corn. It's nothing like sweet corn and really tasty [farmers had certain varieties of field corn they grew for people consumption- it's really good but I haven't had any for decades now]. Blanche's gravy was clear and not a flour and milk based gravy. She used corn starch and very savory natural chicken broth. The chicken provided the savory flavor not bouillon. I was only a few years old, but when something was really good I was determined to learn it even at age 3 or 4. I asked about everything all the time. Blanche was great in talking to me as though I was an adult. I might not have had all the knowledge and experience at that time but as I grew and started cooking I added those things she said because they suddenly made sense. Someone on here did mention the Latino way of developing the meat flavor and it is the right way but they did not include enough details to keep the birds healthy. This is the old time tried and true method for the best tasting poultry meat. Two weeks- no more no less- before butcher feed them cracked corn and make sure they have grit available. All they can eat. They love cracked corn and it's no big deal for them to eat treats. Yeah... and I'd live off of just cream puffs made with vanilla bean pastry cream too if I could. Just plain corn is not totally balanced nutrition for a chicken or turkey. The females need calcium for egg production and a steady diet of corn isn't going to help produce strong eggshells. The males are going to be just fine. We consume our turkey eggs- which we love more than chicken eggs any day. The two weeks is all it takes to get the meat tasting the best. Also too when they have all the corn they want keep in mind that often there is a funny yellow coating on the skin. If you are smart you'll know it's from the heavy corn diet and leave it on it! If you love a nicely bronzed skin with tons of flavor on your roasted birds this yellow almost waxy coating will give an extra bang in flavor for your efforts. Some farmers will feed the roosters an extra week of corn just to get this yellow skin coating. We tend to sell the males, but an extra female is just oh so tender. The meat is a bit more tender fed straight cracked corn. It's amazing what 2 weeks can do to their meat. I can't get myself to kill anything except I have euthanized badly maimed and intensely suffering birds after a dog attack. I leave it to the guys who do all the butchering humanely. I am the bird DIY doctor in the family. BTW if you are worried you might be depriving vitamins to your birds because straight corn is not a balanced diet for any animal simply add some soluble vitamins to their water. You'll also benefit when consuming the bird. You can also find feeding cows and pigs a straight corn diet prior to butcher also gives their meat a wonderful flavor. Cows fed a corn diet produce the most amazingly tender meat with awesome flavor. We raised his, hers, ours, and theirs kids and bought corn fed beef from a farmer friend every year. It was so tender that we could cut the meat with the side of our forks if we wanted. Tender and best flavor. I never wanted to buy beef from a grocers ever again after having such a good access to true corn fed beef. I've only had pork grown that way a couple times but the same can be said for their meat as well. I have no clue how long a cow or pig needs to be on a straight corn diet but the effects of a corn diet is the same for both pigs and cows on their meat. For those who desire to comment to me the posting is old why am I replying to it now: The question is not obsolete. Neither is the answer. I'm older than most flock raisers posting here (not all by far) and I have some experiences that could help those who want to know the old ways of how it was done. I'd rather share the ways of our ancestors before it's in danger of becoming lost. Considering most replies here seem to think meat flavor is all coming from our spice cabinets, I might just have something to share.

 

[Altairsky]

Free range birds are those that taste better.

 

[FunClucks]

Breese are finished with corn and milk for the last month or two. Their flavor is considered the best by far by many chicken eaters. They also have unique genetics that play into getting them this excellent flavor, but corn and milk to finish the bird can't hurt.