Poisonous plants, not sure if this is the right forum or not

[Amanda31]

I built my chicken pen in the fall before we had even hatched out any chickens. The plant in question is the Ruellia brittoniana * Mexican Petunia*. We had a small bed of them in the location that I built my pen, I dug up as many roots as I could, and sprayed them with roundup which killed the top plants but they keep coming up. I have heard they are a poisonous plant and I already know they are invasive. I just don't know if they are poisonous to chickens, I know they are to dogs but my dogs have never shown any interest in them.

Again I am sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

Thanks

 

[squeakyballs]

Chickens (like other birds, and your dogs) seem to instinctively know what plants are bad for them. Besides that, there are very very few plants that will kill a chicken... most "toxic" plants might cause a bit of stomach upset and then the chicken will know to avoid it in the future.

I had to google the plant you were talking about, and I have a patch of it in the front yard! I love it, but I didn't know what it was called. An old mexican guy gave it to me a few years ago! The chickens peck around it while free ranging but they've never shown interest in it.

Leave your pretty plant alone. There are very few things the chickens won't destroy, and you might as well have some greenery to enjoy.


Now that I know what it is called, I've added it to my list of chicken-proof-plants!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=22588-chicken-proof-plants

 

[run roo run]

well, my chicks have eaten all the grass in their run, so when I let them out late afternoon, I noticed the roo headed over to the extensive patch of Mexican petunia (nasty invasive in my yard) and began eating the beautiful purple flowers...so I pulled some up and put it in their pen today, and it was all gone this eve...I wouldn't rush to put it on the chiken proof list just yet, lol!

 

[brattychicken]

Ruellia is on the list of edible plants for desert tortoises, so I put a bunch in the chicken pen one morning. All of it was gone by the evening (stems and all). That was 5 days ago, and all the chickens are still alive and don't show any signs if illness.