Just curious to see what everyone feed their meat birds. I feed a 20-24% feed. Does anyone use corn? Also my brother ( these meat chicks are our summer project ) was wondering if you could almost marinate them while they are still living by feed in peppers ect. for the last week or so.
Personally I use scratch corn. It is used as a filler only. From what the feed man tells me, it does no harm. It is like a treat to them. Thats all I know... but then of course you might want to wait for someone else to reply that knows more than I do since I have only had mine for a short time. Tes
If you mean by feeding them corn instead of broiler feed? Then no. If you mean as a treat, then of course you can. Make sure you used cracked corn. In general, though, I find meat chickens disinterested in the scratch I throw out for them, whereas the hens go ape over it. I also worry a bit about scratch, since the meat birds are very messy. They'd be pecking it out of their own droppings unless you threw it in there right after moving the shelter/tractor.
I fed mine chick starter grower (20% protein) the whole time. The last week or so, they were getting enormous, so I mixed in about half and half scratch grains with their regular food (don't forget if you feed them scratch, you'll need to feed them grit too-just mix it in the food) to try to slow their growth a bit. They got huge by the end and we should have butchered about 2 weeks sooner than we did...but we couldn't get in sooner. They were between 4.6 lbs and 6.5 lbs dead weight! Some of them looked like small turkeys! They were 8 weeks old. Still tasted good though!
I do grower for all 8 weeks. I avoid corn as it is a hot food and thus increases their overheating chances too much for my tastes. To answer the last question, I don' t think you could marinate them alive. Food will go in and come out digested, they don't taste like corn after you butcher them, same will go with peppers.
i use game bird starter for 4 weeks then grower but finish off with one week of cracked corn and oats before butcher. seems to sweetin them up a bit. I also don't confine them. they are free to wander but they tend to not wander far from where they find food. I wouldn't say you could marinate them so to speak but there is a big difference in the flavor of meat depending on what they eat. for example the difference between grain/pasture feed and commercial pellet feed.