What? Chickens can't eat clover? - Page 3

americanvalkyrie, we're glad our chooks have access to `high clover'. Though the range in May seems `painted' as `romantic pastoralist', it is anything but. The GSL at the far left had 4 stitches in her R flank from a Red Fox grab, two days before (down in the swale under those Bald Cypress). There is a Remington Nylon 66, leaning against another one of those scraggly Wild Plums, just out of the frame (we retired 18 Red Fox that year - `07). All but two of the chooks in that shot are still alive as nothing that eats poultry exits the property.

We have every sort of toxic annual/perennial cultivated in an ungulate rat filled `niche' (don't have to hunt deer - just walk out and beat them to death with an aluminum baseball bat). Vinca/Datura(s)/Wisteria/Salvias/Water Hemlock/Castor Beans/Holly/etc. My bonsai Poison Oak, in a bucket, hasn't been pulled out of the dirt - yet. Only injuries from plants have been mechanical. Roo landed on an Osage Orange thorn (right through foot) and developed Bumble Foot. Keep the Gooseberry/Multifloral Rose/Green brier cut back/Osage Orange/Honey Locust trunks cleared of thorns.

The chooks and turks ignore all the `deer proofing' (6 years and no `toxification' of the flocks). Other than the turkey hens glomming down Wild Chives until they stink of onions (if they'd eat a few bites of one of the sages along with it they'd reek of stuffing - then into the oven )

Both the turks and chooks are extremely wary of anything new (eat canned peaches, but growl at a whole one tossed in run). So, when Cass sat her Fuchsia Princess plants out on the back deck, for the summer, she figured the chooks would eat any bugs off of it and otherwise ignore it.



However, after a tentative bite by the roo, the chooks fell to it and ate several leaves/little stems, each (no flowers). How did they know this was not only safe, but tasty? Something like it etched in their Jungle Fowl hard wiring?

We'd never introduce an `unknown' to the flocks in an enclosed run (like humans - `man, I was just so bored I started shooting up...') as they might well poison themselves by `mindless' pecking. Out on the range they are pretty picky eaters, here.

Just a funny side note:

 

In 1994, I was living in Dearborn Heights, MI, where there was a city ordnance banning feeding pigeons and doves.  At the time, I had a bird feeder in my backyard which was kept clean and provided food during a very hard winter.  My neighbor (neighborhood problem neighbor) called and complained that doves and pigeons were also eating out of my bird feeder which violated the ordnance.  When the Police came they informed me that I was in violation of the new ordnance.  When I asked how I could keep doves and pigeons away from my feeder they had no answer and simply suggested that I make an attempt to prevent it.

 

A few days later the neighbor complained again, and once again...the Police were called.  When they came to my house they found a sign next to my feeder which read, "No Pigeons or Doves Allowed".  The Officers had a good laugh and reported to our neighbor that we had taken steps to comply with the ordnance...we never heard anymore complaints.

 

 

 

                  

Maybe the the 4 leaf clovers that cause problems..

 

 

Well, since one can buy "chicken pasture seed" that is about 1/4 ladino clover seed, I suspect someone didn't do his/her research before writing this article. There are a lot of lists out there that completely contradict one another, many compiled from nothing more than incidental data, so I would take any of them with a grain of salt and do more research before taking them at surface value.

Does anyone know if it's ok to put my new pullets out in this pasture to free range after it has been harvested of soybeans and wild turkeys hang out in it all day long? This is a picture of the coop we're building and we get our new chicks in 3 days.  

 

But I have read a lot about people being careful about introducing new hens to their existing flocks so as to not bring in a disease etc. But how about my bringing my new chickens to an existing field of turkey cooties and poopies?  

 

The picture is of our coop we are building and you can see very well how the turkeys are enjoying all around it. Leaving their

marks no doubt. lol. Thank you. Kim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

+1. A big problem with most of those lists is that very often an item that has issues to be aware of gets put on there with no explanation, and next thing you know, it's "toxic".

I thought my chickens were the only ones with a taste for styrafoam! I put a box with the styrafoam packaging still in it on the porch one day and they ate half of it before I caught them. They were just fine.

 

They better fire that fact-checker.....I'm still laughing over hippie cooties......