Comprehensive list of poisonous plants and trees

[chooks4life]

Thanks for posting. Your post was a great help, as I have just started raising chickens this year and awaiting eggs. Did you ever get your eggs? What is your egg story then and now? I have mimosa trees and crepe myrtle trees and wonder if you know these are toxic to chickens or not. I noticed they ate some of the flower part of the crepe myrtles. Don't seem sick. Didn't allow them to eat much of it. I heard that the mimosas were toxic. Thanks.

Not sure who you're talking to specifically, sorry. I haven't ordered any eggs so I assume it's not me... I while ago I thought about getting some eggs from America but there's been such a ridiculous amount of super-expensive hurdles for importers I gave up the idea. Exporting is about as crazy. I'm not awfully good with the names of people so if you were the person I was talking to about that, and I've forgotten you, I apologize.

About the Mimosa, the pods and seeds are poisonous. There's a lot of conflicting info about it and it's another case of having a specific ID on the plant before deciding it's safe or not; there are hundreds of mimosa species. Some are used as livestock feed according to some sources.
Quote:
Crepe Myrtle is not known to be toxic as far as I'm aware, some lists say it's nontoxic to cats, dogs and horses so I assume it is also unlikely to be toxic to chickens which in my opinion are rather more like the goats of the avian world, able to stomach a lot of things that kill other animals.

According to the ASPCA daylilies are toxic to cats and cows but not dogs. My sheep have consumed them before but I try to avoid it because I'm not sure how safe they are and don't want to risk it.
Quote: Toxic Principles: Unknown
Clinical Signs: Cats: kidney failure. Cows: Incoordination, paresis, blindness, death.

Best wishes.

 

[ninjawesome]

Very helpful! Thanks!

 

[MechanicChick]

My chickens are always in my potato bed and sometimes peck at the potato leaves. Is this harmful to them? We also feed our girls potato peelings - have done since we've had them (2yrs). It doesn't seem to have done them any harm. Any feedback would be great. Thanks

 

[chooks4life]

My chickens are always in my potato bed and sometimes peck at the potato leaves. Is this harmful to them? We also feed our girls potato peelings - have done since we've had them (2yrs). It doesn't seem to have done them any harm. Any feedback would be great. Thanks

Sweet potato leaves are safe. Normal potato leaves can be toxic, from mildly sickening to killer toxic. The toxin responsible is solanine. You can gauge how much solanine is present in raw potatoes by how green they are, to some extent, but obviously you can't tell just by looking at potato leaves how much solanine is in them.

The problem is that the levels of the toxin fluctuate in the plants in response to things like weather, insect attack, fungal load, growth stage, and so forth; a chicken could scoff a few leaves one hour, with no harm done, come back an hour later, eat a couple more, and die from the toxin levels now present.

Plant chemical levels are not stable. They fluctuate nonstop. A little irritation, like being eaten for example, can and does prompt most plants to boost production of whatever protective toxins their species produces.

I would stop chickens from accessing potato leaves for that reason, myself. It'll be safe till one day it's not.

Peel should be fine as long as you don't let it get moldy or ferment, and as long as it's not green. Same with raw potatoes.

The solanine levels are generally indicated by greeness in potato skins, and the greener they are, the more solanine is present - but it's not a guarantee. Sometimes enough is present to severely sicken a human in only very slightly green potatoes, whereas sometimes even quite green potatoes can be eaten without making you sick.

Best wishes.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Is oak really toxic?

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

Oak has tanin in it... this should make it taste not so good. Tanin is why the nuts must be leached. We have a feral population in the park and it has oak trees, the chickens are fine free-ranging there, so my guess is they don't eat it.

 

[CrazyTalk]

Is oak really toxic?

At some level, absolutely. Everything is.

My experience so far with Oak hasn't been a problem. We have two large oak trees that sit on the border between our pasture and the duck yard. Every other year they drop several hundred pounds of acorns, and every year they drop all their leaves.

The sheep and ducks eat copious amounts of acorns, and the chickens eat some (the ducks choke them down whole - its horrifying to watch - they look like a snake eating something), and the sheep eat huge amounts of oak leaves.

Really high levels of tannins can cause some issues (studies show lower production in cattle being fed huge amounts of acorns)- but I haven't run into any animal health problems.


The only problem we've run into is that when the ducks start getting into the acorns, their egg yolks turn this disgusting green color - so we have to shut down sales for a month or two.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Thank you both for the issue!! Good to know its not usually much of a problem!

So do you think it would be okay in confined areas? Because the reason I was asking was because in the run I wanted to try a deep litter/forest floor type thing, with like 3 inches of wood chips and 3 inches of leaves, grass clippings, everything else, amd we mostly have pine, oak, and maple, so didn't know if it would be an issue. Though when mine go into the woods free ranging they usually scratch at the leaves to get what's underneath so maybe they don't care for them.

 

[chooks4life]

Thank you both for the issue!! Good to know its not usually much of a problem!

So do you think it would be okay in confined areas?

If you're talking about permanently caging them in runs/coops with oak leaves among the litter, well, I am always wary about exposing chickens subjected to long term caging to toxic things, because even chickens experienced with free ranging (those who know what not to eat, etc) will often make bad dietary choices after being caged for long enough.

Because the reason I was asking was because in the run I wanted to try a deep litter/forest floor type thing, with like 3 inches of wood chips and 3 inches of leaves, grass clippings, everything else, amd we mostly have pine, oak, and maple, so didn't know if it would be an issue. Though when mine go into the woods free ranging they usually scratch at the leaves to get what's underneath so maybe they don't care for them.

Some info on oak toxicosis in livestock:

As CrazyTalk said, anything is toxic in the wrong dose. For most naturally occurring chemicals, it is merely dose that separates beneficial nutrient from medicine and toxin. Some things have infinitesimally small safe doses, most have intermediate dosages, and some have enormous upper limits before they become unsafe. Bizarrely enough some toxins are actually worse, the smaller the dose.

Tannin is a scientifically proven anthelmintic, a wormer; and some sources claim all phenols are toxic to poultry but that is plain incorrect and dangerously so. The Encyclopedia Britannica entry on phenols helps clarify that bizarrely contentious issue:

Many of the more complex phenols used as flavourings and aromas are obtained from essential oils of plants. For example, vanillin, the principal flavouring in vanilla, is isolated from vanilla beans, and methyl salicylate, which has a characteristic minty taste and odour, is isolated from wintergreen.

Other phenols obtained from plants include thymol, isolated from thyme, and eugenol, isolated from cloves."

Source: http://www.britannica.com/science/phenol

Best wishes.

 

[mobius]

Question: I am planning to have my chicks compost various things in their run...could I put dried iris leaves (from last year) in their run? Spring cleaning the garden is about to start...I just want to make sure that what I use is ok. Otherwise, I will put in regular compost pile (no chicken access...). Thanks!