can chickens eat citrus

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Just FYI, potato peelings are NOT toxic to chickens. Mine eat them all the time. There are toxins in them if they are green--- "sunburned"--- but I saw someplace a calculation that a chicken would have to eat several pounds for them to be deadly. Potato plants, the green leafy tops are not a good idea probably. I doubt potato peels are especially nutritious but the chickens like pecking at them and they honestly don't hurt them. I've mentioned on here before that as a kid I was daily sent out with the peelings from our supper potatoes to feed our chickens. The hens of 50 years ago were as eager as the ones in my coop I gave potato peels this afternoon.
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Mine generally won't eat citrus unless it is mixed in other stuff. Or mushrooms unless they are cooked in something.

Bill
 
Texas getting hot now, but thank the chicken gods above, we haven't gotten the above 100s heat wave we had last summer! knock on wood... I give my sweethearts cold treats at least once each afternoon...cold fruit cocktail is one of them, I sometimes see pieces of pineapple in it and that's usually the last to be eaten. They also like cold plain yogurt and cold apple sauce. Nice cold watermelon to help keep them hydrated. Any cold fruit will do.
 
Chickens can have citrus but they probably wouldn't like the taste of it, especially lemons. Lemons mainly and other citrus have been known to make chickens stop or slow down on laying for a while but it doesn't always to that when they are Fed a lot of it. If you feed you hens a lot of lemons or other cirtis they probably would not stop laying but the eggs shell's would be wrinkly or soft, the asitic asid is known to make hens lay soft shelled eggs and if Fed too much (or more) they could stop laying for a small amount of time, maybe a day or two but not that long... And that's of your chickens will actually eat any citrus. :gig
 
Hens Rule, did you not see that lemon turns alkaline in the body? It is not an "acid forming" food, so may be healthy for chickens as for us. I'll throw some peels out there tomorrow.

Our chickens particularly like chick peas (haha), banana peels, soft-cooked chicken bones-cartilege-skin, lettuce, cooked broccoli and carrots and the waterand as someone mentioned: anything they think another chicken will want. From my garden they ate all the little cabbage, broccoli and rabe, carrot tops, rutabaga leaves, spinach. And they walk on everything else!
 
I worry about the coyotes, especially after reading about a member losing his whole flock to one! I buried my hardware wire deep all around the run and close the chickens in the coop at night. Would having a couple of solar spot lights around the coop help or will it just show the coyotes where to go? Coyotes and Fisher cats are on our farm and it is a real concern for me. I went to the expense of hardware wire as I knew plain old chicken wire would never keep the predators we have around here out. I live in upstate NY.
 

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