Are "Service Berries" okay for chickens to eat?

[lonepine]

We live in Colorado, and have twenty birds about 10 weeks old. We have been planting some shrubs and trees in the yard where they will be free-ranging just outside the chicken house. One of the plants is a "service berry" bush. These grow will along streams and rivers here in Colorado, and have berries in the Fall. Does anyone have experience with chickens and "service berries?" Maybe they won't even eat them, but if they do, I just hadn't thought whether it would present a problem??? Thanks! Dartfrog

 

[Cindy in PA]

If they are service berries (Juneberries, Saskatoons) they are edible for humans & birds love them, so they would be OK for chickens. We have them in PA & I planted a tree & two bushes several years ago, the berries are delicious if you can get them before the birds.

 

[OwensMom]

Hi lonepine, I'm in Colorado also. Service berries are a great shrub and make fine bird food. We plant an edible landscape and service berry is one of our favorites.

 

[jennh]

Quote:
What she said

 

[breezy]

Yep chickens can eat them but why waste those tasty berries on your birds.....make yummy cobblers and pies out of them. My husband and the robins duke it out every year over who gets to eat the most berries and after he picks as many as he can its service berry muffins, pancakes,bread,cobbler,jam and pie till DH is stuffed to the gills with them. Then we start all over again next year

 

[chickened]

They are high in nutrition the native Americans used them in their pemmican.

 

[Ariel301]

Yes, they're just fine. High in vitamin C, too.

Unfortunately I didn't learn that they were edible until I moved out of Colorado...I had access to hundreds of bushes for years and all that time I could have been eating them! Oh well.