Have you ever cracked open a chicken egg from Japan?
If you do, the first thing you’ll notice is how much more vibrant and orange the yolk is compared to a chicken egg from the U.S.
Seeing one makes you think: just what are those chickens eating?
In Japan, farmers feed their chickens a beta-carotene-rich formula to achieve that yolky brightness, highlighting a key principle in livestock feeding: it matters what they eat.
We tend not to think too deeply about what kind of food our livestock consumes. As long as it makes it to the plate, right? If we took a moment to look, however, we’d see the many advantages of choosing organic over traditional feed, and find out why we should care more about what our chickens eat.
Keep reading to learn more about the benefits of organic chicken feed.
No Pesticides or Fertilizers
A key aspect of organic feed is that it doesn’t contain big farming industry-standard pesticides and fertilizers.
The best organic chicken feed is usually composed of just a few ingredients, usually a combination of various wheat and grains. Farmers grow these without the assistance of chemicals, usually just a compost fertilizer the grower makes themselves.
This makes the chicken feed much more environmentally friendly because there’s no runoff from growing the feed that can contaminate soil and water around the farm.
Traditional pesticides and fertilizers also use large, air-polluting machinery to apply the compounds to crops. The ingredients that make bulk organic chicken feed are free from these chemicals and the machinery farmers use to apply them to their crops.
Better Taste
Organic feed means organic meat and eggs.
Chickens that consume organic feed produce eggs and meat that taste better because there are no hormones or growth assist chemicals in the feed.
This means that the chickens are not consuming any toxins that could potentially be passed on to their eggs or meat.
Remember the Japanese egg from earlier? Chicken eggs can be very sensitive to the type of feed farmers use.
Healthy Chickens
The benefits of eating organic eggs and meat go beyond just the taste. Chickens that are fed organic feed are also healthier than those that are fed conventional feed.
If a farmer is using an organic feed, odds are they’re already thinking more about the chickens’ well-being than a traditional farmer would.
Organic farmers love these ground feeders for chickens because they’re designed with organic feed in mind. They can hold wet, mash feeds, and any other larger pieces of food fragments you can think to toss in for them.
Ground feeders for chicken feed also require farmers to replenish the mixture daily. This ensures fresh, organic feed cycles through a constant rotation.
Happier Chickens: Organic Chicken Feed
Organic chicken feed makes for healthier, happier chickens, which in turn makes for healthier, happier people.
Be sure to check out the rest of our blog for more information on organic farming and sustainable living!