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.
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.