A non-member friend has a chicken related question, so I thought I'd ask it here for them:
"I have a chicken-related question I can't seem to find an answer to online, since it's pretty specific.
I like to occasionally feed my chickums table scraps and foraged foods, to supplement their diet. Recently, I realized there's an ENORMOUS Armillaria (honey mushroom) patch on my property. And I mean enormous. Like, 300-400 mushrooms, all in neat little clumps.
These mushrooms are edible for people, although apparently they're a little slimy when you cook them up, so I'm not interested. But it seems a huge waste to watch them rot.
So, I'm curious if it's safe to feed them to chickens. I know chickens occasionally forage for wild mushrooms on their own, and tend to know which varieties to eat and which not to, but my chickens are hardly wild, world-weary, seasoned birds. They are pampered poofballs who gobble up everything in sight.
I've gone through a pretty extensive list making absolutely certain I have my mushrooms properly identified. Armillaria have some very specific traits that make them pretty easy to identify (secondary ring, distinctive gills, tiny hairs on the top of the cap, white spore print, etc.) and this is the right time of year, right location, and right place where they were found. So, pretty much 100% on what kind of mushrooms they are. That being said, just because they're safe for people, I dunno if that means they're safe for birds. . . ?"
Any advice?
"I have a chicken-related question I can't seem to find an answer to online, since it's pretty specific.
I like to occasionally feed my chickums table scraps and foraged foods, to supplement their diet. Recently, I realized there's an ENORMOUS Armillaria (honey mushroom) patch on my property. And I mean enormous. Like, 300-400 mushrooms, all in neat little clumps.
These mushrooms are edible for people, although apparently they're a little slimy when you cook them up, so I'm not interested. But it seems a huge waste to watch them rot.
So, I'm curious if it's safe to feed them to chickens. I know chickens occasionally forage for wild mushrooms on their own, and tend to know which varieties to eat and which not to, but my chickens are hardly wild, world-weary, seasoned birds. They are pampered poofballs who gobble up everything in sight.
I've gone through a pretty extensive list making absolutely certain I have my mushrooms properly identified. Armillaria have some very specific traits that make them pretty easy to identify (secondary ring, distinctive gills, tiny hairs on the top of the cap, white spore print, etc.) and this is the right time of year, right location, and right place where they were found. So, pretty much 100% on what kind of mushrooms they are. That being said, just because they're safe for people, I dunno if that means they're safe for birds. . . ?"
Any advice?
