Pastured Hens- tackling with "toxic" plant lists...

[daniellea2912]

I have pastured hens... They are in the coop at night and 99% of the time during the day they are in an old large backyard turned chicken pasture. I have 10 hens that are a year old and I bought 7 chicks to add to the flock. Since this is the first year they will spend the whole summer out in the pasture (as chicks last year they lived in a run until fully grown), I have slowly been landscaping it with edible plants... however I am having issues with seemingly finding half the things left over from the pastures backyard days being poisonous and the new things I am planting I am finding conflicting information. I understand some of the plants on the list would be bad choices to put in runs that don't have an array of good plants because the chickens would be ingesting too much of only one bad plant.... but are they ok in my case?

So here's the items I am questioning:
Larkspur & Field Poppies - both of these are in a shade wildflower mix I bought. Larkspur I have read is poisonous, and I have seen certain poppies on lists as well but if they have plenty of other options to eat, is it ok? There is a good size area where poppies have always grown in their pasture (I think they may be field poppies but not 100% sure)... They don't seem to have touched them other than a nibble here or there. They do love napping underneath them/walking on them though.

Bulb flowers- ie daffodils, iris etc. I am guessing these are alright in small amounts, since I just read they are bad and my flock definitely nibbled on them as they were the first green things up this spring.

Coriander- haven't planted it yet, but have a few extra plants I was going to throw in the chicken herb garden... but then I ran into it on like every toxic plant list

I just wondered if any of you had any of these in your chicken gardens/pastures, and if you had issues.... I definitely don't want a poisonous time bomb in their pasture but at the same time, I don't want to be throwing stuff out that is perfectly safe for them when they have lots of other options.

 

[centrarchid]

I have numerous toxic plant species, some of which that consumed in at least limited amounts. The birds seem to sample and not over indulge. Also toxicity for mammals may nor always translate over to chickens owing to differing physiologies, Thus I have never seen health issues in my birds attributable to plant toxins.

 

[Speceider]

My suggestion is to ignore the stupid lists. The list a plant...the bulb maybe toxic to species x, so it is assumed to be toxic to all. Many species, such as Lantana are listed as toxic, but they are bird-dispersed species, so there is no problem if they eat the fruits. Similarly, plant flowers that produce fructose as their sugar...they ate worthless to thrushes because thrushes lack the enzyme to use the sugar. Feed tallow fruits to bobwhitrs, they starve....feed them to yellow-rumped warblers...they grow fat.....a bird is not a bird...is not a bird....they are much smarter than we are as to what they should eat...

Clint

 

[daniellea2912]

My suggestion is to ignore the stupid lists. The list a plant...the bulb maybe toxic to species x, so it is assumed to be toxic to all. Many species, such as Lantana are listed as toxic, but they are bird-dispersed species, so there is no problem if they eat the fruits. Similarly, plant flowers that produce fructose as their sugar...they ate worthless to thrushes because thrushes lack the enzyme to use the sugar. Feed tallow fruits to bobwhitrs, they starve....feed them to yellow-rumped warblers...they grow fat.....a bird is not a bird...is not a bird....they are much smarter than we are as to what they should eat...

Clint

I have numerous toxic plant species, some of which that consumed in at least limited amounts. The birds seem to sample and not over indulge. Also toxicity for mammals may nor always translate over to chickens owing to differing physiologies, Thus I have never seen health issues in my birds attributable to plant toxins.

Thank you both! Good points. Not gonna worry so much

 

[Old farmer at bFADFarms]

My suggestion is to ignore the stupid lists. The list a plant...the bulb maybe toxic to species x, so it is assumed to be toxic to all. Many species, such as Lantana are listed as toxic, but they are bird-dispersed species, so there is no problem if they eat the fruits. Similarly, plant flowers that produce fructose as their sugar...they ate worthless to thrushes because thrushes lack the enzyme to use the sugar. Feed tallow fruits to bobwhitrs, they starve....feed them to yellow-rumped warblers...they grow fat.....a bird is not a bird...is not a bird....they are much smarter than we are as to what they should eat...

Clint

I agree with Clint, I have two flocks of hens with roosters, one set is in the barn with access to the pasture, the other is in the hen house with access to the orchard. Both groups have access to the yard, I have had chickens since moving to the property 40 yrs ago and have never to my knowledge lost a chicken to Star of Bethlehem. Did lose a group of goat kids to poke but have had goats, sheep, and watched rabbits eat elderberry and there all still living although I did see a sheep eat some today and since I’m going out to tuck in the chickens I’ll go by the barn and check on the sheep also, we’ll see. I know that the lists that elderberries is on my goats never read and they would whittle them down every chance they got.