Comfrey and mulberries for ducks

I am told ducks adore mulberries!  I planted two dwarf weeping mulberries last year in the forest garden, half for the ducks.

And there is much written about the compounds in comfrey.  I feed my ducks some comfrey, not lots, fresh.  They seem fine (famous last words, I know).  They prefer it quite young and tender.  The older leaves get pretty hairy and coarse and aren't as nice to eat, I think.

So, I suggest you look a little further, as an article in Mother Earth News (and probably other sources as well) suggests comfrey as a forage for poultry flocks.  There just does not seem to be unanimity about comfrey.  There was a study done on rats that reported liver damage from eating comfrey.  But then later criticisms of the study were to the effect that a person would need to eat pounds of comfrey every day for a while to ingest the equivalent of the amount given to the test animals.

I was back & forth on comfrey, too.

I have decided to run with it, but in strict moderation.

My grandparents always kept it as an additive for their livestock, and they never seemed to have unhealthy animals, but they wound up eating a lot of them, too.  I put the comfrey in my invasive plant garden.  It can duke it out with the mint, bee balm & valerian..

So I'm not the only one who grows "vigorous plants" in their own section of the garden together????

Day lilies, bee balm, myrtle, apple mint and comfrey in one garden.

The Russian comfrey (with viable seed) is between the duck run and the road.  It can grow all it wants over there.

And I have also decided that some comfrey is okay, not a major part of their diet.

It is the only way.  Let them fight one another so less intrusive plants aren't forever suffering while Dill runs rough shot through every row in the garden.

Now, if we could do the same with humans, that would be something.

Quote:

Originally Posted by newbyduckmom 

Well, thinking mulberries are okay, but comfrey concerns me.  The more research I do, the more concerned I get.  http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/medicinal/comf.html

 

Also, have read it is dangerous for humans (liver damage) and can be absorbed through the skin.  Not too mention invasive....I got my starts from a friend, now thinking I should skip it.

I read an article in Bacy yard poultry mag. or maybe Country side it's been a few years ago about using Comfrey to feed livestock. I have given it to my chickens and ducks for many years about 3-4 leaves at a time hung  up and they love it and no one here has ever suffered from it. Mulberries the ducks love. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by newbyduckmom 

I have my valerian, lemon balm, mints, and likely soon to be comfrey all in 4' X4' beds.  They stay very cozy ....have crowded out most of the other herbs I had in with them.   But that just means I do worry about taking care of those beds as much. The well established sage and nepetha and one lavendar are holding their own against the bullies!

I kinda like when things take over, less weeding that way