Are Uncooked Lentils Really Dangerous for Chickens?

[joeshmo]

I've been feeding dry raw lentils to my flock of 150+ New Hampshire Red chickens for around 2 years. about 1/4 - 1/3 of their feed is lentils. And I have not seen any ill effects on the birds health or egg production. Fertility and health of their offspring is also apparently unaffected.


I've heard they contain some kind of harmful compound when raw, but there have been no short term ill effects on my birds. If all my birds suddenly die tomorrow I may have to rethink possible long term issues.


I have also noticed they go through stages where the birds will prefer the lentils and eat them even before the layer pellets. And then other times when they eat all the layer pellets first and then pick at the lentils.


In my experience chickens mostly avoid the things that they shouldn't eat. They are scavengers who know how to pick and choose.


I'd be curious to know what "they" say will happen to a chicken who eats too many uncooked lentils?... Has anyone heard what the actual issue could be? Everything I've seen just says they're toxic, but how or why is vague. Would also love to hear firsthand if anyone has experienced a problem with feeding dry lentils.

 

[Cindy in PA]

Uncooked lentils are fine for chickens.

 

[CKfarm22]

Uncooked beans and lentils contain a compound called phytohaemagglutinin. This compound is poison to chickens.

 

[Cindy in PA]

Uncooked beans and lentils contain a compound called phytohaemagglutinin. This compound is poison to chickens.

Lentils & field peas are fed raw to chickens. They do not have to be cooked like other beans. Look it up.

 

[CKfarm22]

Lentils & field peas are fed raw to chickens. They do not have to be cooked like other beans. Look it up.

Yes you do. Literally got my response from google. Any website tells you to sprout or cook them first.

 

[CKfarm22]

Lentils & field peas are fed raw to chickens. They do not have to be cooked like other beans. Look it up.

https://www.raising-happy-chickens.com/chickens-can-eat-lentils.html

https://insteading.com/blog/what-not-to-feed-chickens/

https://chickenandchicksinfo.com/can-chickens-eat-lentils/

https://thankchickens.com/can-chickens-eat-lentils/

4 different websites all say NOT to feed them raw

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I've been feeding dry raw lentils to my flock of 150+ New Hampshire Red chickens for around 2 years. about 1/4 - 1/3 of their feed is lentils. And I have not seen any ill effects on the birds health or egg production. Fertility and health of their offspring is also apparently unaffected.


I've heard they contain some kind of harmful compound when raw, but there have been no short term ill effects on my birds. If all my birds suddenly die tomorrow I may have to rethink possible long term issues.


I have also noticed they go through stages where the birds will prefer the lentils and eat them even before the layer pellets. And then other times when they eat all the layer pellets first and then pick at the lentils.


In my experience chickens mostly avoid the things that they shouldn't eat. They are scavengers who know how to pick and choose.


I'd be curious to know what "they" say will happen to a chicken who eats too many uncooked lentils?... Has anyone heard what the actual issue could be? Everything I've seen just says they're toxic, but how or why is vague. Would also love to hear firsthand if anyone has experienced a problem with feeding dry lentils.

You also have no population to compare against.

Here's the deal. "The Dosage is the Poison". How much, for how long is a key factor.
Lentils contain a host of anti-nutritional factors (albeit at lower levels than many other common feed ingredients). Many of those factors can be reduced either by soaking, heat treatment, or fermentation. Cooking the way we traditionally cook lentils does two of those methods, soaking and heating, making some of the nutritional content of the lentils more bioavailable to your chickens. Its a net positive when done right, though not universally positive (some vitamins are damaged, protein level slightly reduced, etc). Still being studied (here's the microwave method)

Not affected by cooking, lentils have very low amounts (inspite of their moderately high protein levels) of Methionine and Tryptophan - a high lentil feed needs to be compensated for that or you end up with the conditions you expect of low met and low tryp diets - in the case of low met, the connective tissue isn't so well put together, with negative impact on feed efficiency, digestive development, and disease resistance (through some not entirely well understood processes *thought* to relate primarily to gut development).

In the case of broilers, there have been studies using up to 20% raw lentil which found little or no difference (most differences had to do with liver, pancreas, intestinal length) see also here, p 128 in Broilers, assuming a diet supplimented with additional Met and Tryp. Of course, Broilers aren't looked at for long term health...

Over 10% in layers is associated with slightly to somewhat reduced rates of lay. Similar results (over 15% in quail) have been found in other birds. The research isn't entirely in agreement on this however. There's a single study showing greater egg production, I'm told, I just can't find full copy of it. THIIS is the study almost everyone relies on as the foundational work on lentils and layers.

Based on the above, it is likely your birds would lay better (how much better? harder to guess with so few studies) if lentils were a smaller component of their diet, and might be more feed efficient if the lentils were prepared first. The rest of their diet is also a big factor, particularly your ingredients offering high relative levels of Met.

Hope that helps!

 

[Cindy in PA]

https://www.raising-happy-chickens.com/chickens-can-eat-lentils.html

https://insteading.com/blog/what-not-to-feed-chickens/

https://chickenandchicksinfo.com/can-chickens-eat-lentils/

https://thankchickens.com/can-chickens-eat-lentils/

4 different websites all say NOT to feed them raw

Someone better tell the pigeon & chicken feed manufacturers. Field peas & lentils do not have to be cooked. Believe what you want, this has been discussed 100s of times. As stated above, there is a % that should not be exceeded, but that goes for many feed components.

 

[CKfarm22]

Someone better tell the pigeon & chicken feed manufacturers. Field peas & lentils do not have to be cooked. Believe what you want, this has been discussed 100s of times. As stated above, there is a % that should not be exceeded, but that goes for many feed components.

Then why would every single website tell you to at least sprout them first.

 

[Cindy in PA]

https://poultry.extension.org/artic...-in-poultry-feed/field-peas-in-poultry-diets/

https://poultry.extension.org/artic...mes-in-poultry-feed/lentils-in-poultry-diets/

The first states that a benefit is that field peas don't have to be cooked like whole soybeans.
The second states lentils are low in digestive inhibitors. Peas especially are included in whole grain pigeon diets. Believe what you'd like.