What to feed chickens for best tasting eggs? Here’s the real deal, just a single food item can’t provide your chickens with enough nutrients to provide the best-tasting eggs. But, if provided with the right food during the egg production season, you will get to enjoy the best-flavored eggs every morning. Now, who doesn’t want that, right?
To tell you the truth, when your chickens get the required nutritional value based on the specific seasons, they will produce eggs that will beat the store-bought ones on any given day. There’s nothing compared to the bright as sunshine egg yolks and freshly whipped scrambled eggs with butter.
We’re all drooling at this point. But, having such wonderful tasting eggs isn’t too far on your luck either. Let’s see what foods you can provide your chickens so that you get to have satisfaction in every bite.
What to feed chickens for best tasting eggs:
Around a hundred flavor compounds can determine the taste of the eggs. This results in primarily fat-rich yolks, and although the overall bits may be bland and mild, the yolks consist of the most distinctive flavors.
But what can affect the taste of eggs such drastically? Let’s dive in to know.
1. Hydration
What to feed chickens for best tasting eggs? Besides having a generous supplementary feed, chickens need the perfect mix of carbohydrates, fiber, proteins, and fats. However, to break it all down while keeping the chickens in tip-top shape, you will need to supply them with a lot of water.
In reality, water is responsible for making around 50% of the egg’s volume. Hence, if there’s less to no supply of water, it would mean that the eggs will be underwhelming or worse – there will be no eggs at all.
Therefore, checking the water quality on a regular basis is an absolute must. Moreover, chickens tend to ruin their drinking water. Thus, it should be made a priority. You can use a professional chicken waterer to ease the process. Make sure you choose a good good waterer.
2. Fresh Food
What to feed chickens for best tasting eggs? Just sprinkling some fresh foods on their main meal should be enough. Chicken pet owners can also incorporate fresh vegetables such as tomatoes or cabbage into the chickens’ diet.
Chickens’ water tends to freeze in winter; therefore, you can provide them with vegetables to compensate for the lost amount. Vegetables are excellent sources of hydration, and in addition, they contribute heavily to making the best-tasting eggs.
You can incorporate weeds, fallen fruits, grass clippings, and more into the chicken’s diet during summer days.
3. Herbs And Fibers
What to feed chickens for best tasting eggs? You can add garlic, alfalfa, dried oregano, and oatmeal to your chickens’ diet. Moreover, for nesting chickens, ingredients such as calendula, cornflower, lavender, roses, and chamomile can do wonders for the best smelling and tasting eggs.
Oatmeal is necessary to break down the digestion of food. Studies have also found that oregano and garlic have high antibiotic properties that can regulate proper healthy symptoms in chickens and keep them safe from diseases.
To everyone’s luck, incorporating garlic and oregano into hens’ diet can also eliminate the need to offer them artificial antibiotics. This practice keeps their chickens healthier and eggs tastier with the bonus of rich golden yolks.
4. Protein
Wheatgrass can be the foundation of a long, high-protein dietary list for your chickens. Wheatgrass consists of high protein contents and is vital for making chickens stronger, healthier, and, of course – eggs that taste like heaven drops.
Another option for such a high protein-filled diet is barley which is regularly available in any local store. Additionally, chickens love to dive into grass meals and later scratch through the remains to get to the roots. It gives them a chance to free-range a bit which is necessary as well.
Grass hay and alfalfa are the perfect addition during winters. They’re also rich in protein and can make eggs taste exceptionally delicious. Incorporating other required vitamins, iron, protein in the form of kelp is also intuitive to get an all-natural source for golden yolks and essential minerals.
5. Free Range
Do you believe in setting nature free? You should. If you’re a proud owner of a giant or mid-ranged backyard, let your chicken forage through it to find some joy and hidden treasures. This sets a stress-free environment for them, and sometimes that can play a more significant role than generic dietary regulations.
In hindsight, when they start frolicking through the yards, they could find seeds, weeds, wild berries, and insects to devour. These can boost the egg’s taste and have unmatched nutritional values.
6. Calcium
Focusing on better-tasting eggs alone is never enough. A healthy egg overall must have the most rigid exterior shell too. Calcium is an all-time essential ingredient that promotes the production of sturdy, tasty, and appealing eggs. To have the strongest eggshells, you can provide the chickens with ground eggshells or oyster shells – yes, you read that right.
Before feeding the eggshells, you must cook them well. Because let’s face it, it’s weird providing them what they’ve produced earlier; thus, cooking them is essential so that the chickens can’t put two and two together. If they associate that you’re feeding their previously made eggshells, their upcoming production may be underwhelming.
7. Fish Meal
So, what else is an ideal source of protein for chickens? Fish!
On another note, fish meals do contribute to making the eggs taste a tad fishy – quite literally. However, if you don’t want your eggs to smell and taste a bit off, you can switch between a few brands of fish meals to find the best fit.
One way to find the best fish meal is by looking into the ingredients list and labels. Fish meals should pose lower than 1 to 1.5% of feeds. Additionally, you can also provide chickens with shrimp, shellfish, or lobster scraps, and they will never put off the creation of eggs.
Conclusion
What to feed chickens for best tasting eggs? Did you know that strong flavors can influence the smell of the eggs? Therefore, it’s a recommendation that all chicken pet owners avoid intensely flavored foods for chickens who will soon gift you with yummy eggs.
On the contrary, maintaining a healthy diet with the tips that we’ve shared with you isn’t the most challenging part of the job. Some of these tricks remain in practice and part of their diet all around the year.
One shouldn’t only fixate on best tasting eggs for the sake of pleasuring their taste buds. It’s also vital that they prioritize the chickens’ health and well-being. Once you can balance out these dietary additions, you can say goodbye to store-bought eggs for good. Yay!