whole olives?

SunsetChickens

In the Brooder
11 Years
Feb 1, 2008
32
1
22
Menlo Park, CA
Our chicken coop is under a big olive tree, which drops zillions and zillions of olives on the ground nearby. The chickens yard is covered, but lots of the fruit rolls into the coop. The chickens are crazy about the olives and gulp them down, pit and all. Pit and all!

Now, these are uncured olives, so I'm not worried about salt content, but it strikes me as somewhat dangerous for them to be eating olive pits. Won't they get caught somewhere in their gullets? And yet, they've been eating them for months with no apparent ill-effect.

Is it normal for chickens to eat such large seeds without hurting their digestive systems? Should we sweep the olives up and make the coop a no-olive zone? (Seems a shame, since a handful of olives seems to be just about the chickens' favorite treat.)

Any advice is much appreciated,
-Elizabeth
 
Well that's a first!! A coop showered with all natural olives!

I have no idea about olive-eating chickens, but I do know that wild birds eat lots of large seeds whole and it just passes through, which is why you get shrubs growing where they weren't planted. Not sure if olive PITS are toxic in quantity or not...
 
Not sure how big an olive is or a pit is... but should be fine as they eat rocks and store them in their gizzards. Unsure about toxicitiy but if they are happy, it's probably fine.
 
You can send those olives over here I'll take care of them. It is hard to find raw olives anywhere..
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I don't think you should have a problem but you sure are going to have nice healthy chickens I bet those pites will slide right down with all that "olive oil" they are consuming.
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SunsetChickens you just spoiled my appetite.

Yes I would think maggots would be a real treat for your flock, hey share and share alike, the maggots eat the olives and get fat the chickens eat the maggots eating the olives and get fat.
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I bet you have some happy and shiny chickens, Sunset! You should post up some pix for us!
 
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