Are cherry pits bad for chickens?

We have a Queen Anne cherry tree that is loaded with ripe cherries and of course our chickens LOVE them!  (We have one chicken that is 13 weeks old and 3 that are 10 weeks old.)  I read that cherry pits are bad for chickens so we pit them when we feed them cherries.  We let them free range while we are in the yard to watch over them but we are having a hard time keeping the chickens from eating the whole cherries that they find under the tree.    As soon as one finds one, the chase begins!  The other three chickens chase the one with the cherry and so do their humans.  We usually are successful in catching them and pitting the cherry but they have gotten smarter and are beginning to hide or gulp down the whole cherry before we can catch them.  How serious is this and do we really need to keep chasing them down to pull the cherry pit away from them?

They are in a hurry to down them before someone else gets the cherry away from them!  I'm glad that cherry season will be over in another week or so and then I won't have to worry about it anymore.

I'm glad to hear that!  Yes, it is a comedy of errors to see us chasing them around the yard.  It is usually the barred rock who has it and she has become very good at getting away from us. 

I'm off to do a search of the older threads!

Fortunately, it is a big cherry tree and the branches are quite a ways from the ground.  The chickens don't seem to be interested in the leaves, just the cherries!