Are flower petals poisonous?

[lilfoot]

I've heard of feeding rose petals to bunnies & wondered if other flowers would be beneficial,
poisonous or nutritious at all for chickens....primarily begonia flowers as I have access to a
surplus occasionally. Thanks!

 

[TexasChickenDance]

This is a good question. I have roses from Valentine's Day that are just about capute and would like to feed to my hens.

 

[tammyd57]

Rose petals are fine for chickens AND people to eat. And rose hips have a lot of beneficial vitamins and beta carotene. I'm not sure about begonias, probably okay but would have to look it up to be certain.

Edited to add: I would NOT feed florist roses to anything, those are almost certainly sprayed with toxic chemicals. Only use flowers that you are certain have not been sprayed with anything, including fertilizers, insecticides or fungicides.

 

[Akane]

Depends on the flower. Some are entirely edible. I planted a whole garden of edible flowers and herbs for my guinea pigs one year. Snapdragons, marigolds, and nasturtiums are some very easy to grow edible flowers. Alot of wildflowers are edible. This property has grown wild in the middle of nowhere for a long time and so there are a lot of native wild flowers. I have yet to find one that's reported as poisonous. However many imported decorative flowers and plants and a few natives are very poisonous so make sure you know what it is and look it up first. Just putting the name of the plant followed by edible or poisonous in to google will usually get you an answer. There are also some long lists of edible flowers such as http://whatscookingamerica.net/EdibleFlowers/EdibleFlowersMain.htm .

Do not feed cut or purchased flowers (includes potted ones until they have been thoroughly rinsed and growing on your property for awhile) and do not collect flowers or forage too close to roads or off your own property unless you know for certain no one sprays anything in the area.

 

[TexasChickenDance]

After I posted about valentine's roses I looked up the treat list on this site and there in plain black and white said not to feed florist bought flowers.

 

[snowflake]

Do check! some flowers such as trumpet flower are poisonous, all parts, morning glory seeds are poisonous, Just read that today in a catalog. going on line is a good idea, when in doubt don't. .....

 

[flgardengirl]

Here is a link for edible flowers for people. In general people and chickens can eat many of the same things. Not all the same things but many. I would use it as a guide then do your own research.
http://whatscookingamerica.net/EdibleFlowers/EdibleFlowersMain.htm

ETA:0ops we found the same link lol!! It is a good one. Lots of do's and don'ts.

 

[lilfoot]

Thanks everyone! I opted to not use the abundance of buds this time
as I wasn't sure. Now that I've ck'd out the link provided....it does
list Begonias as safe so next time we pick the buds I will give them a
few to try.

 

[peepacheep]

I believe I have read somewhere that wax begonia is toxic but tuberous begonia is not. Might want to double check the species of begonia before feeding.