Anything I can't feed the chickens?

[fleurdelisky]

I have been reading the topic of "treats" and I just wanted to know if there is anything that is bad for chickens to eat. I can understand the obvious like chocolate or meat products, but I have a silver-laced wyandotte and a black australorp that eat almost anything! I just gave them some yellow squash and they fought over it. They love watermelon, tomotoes and over-ripe bananas, too.
Thanks for the info!

 

[mudhen]

Yes, apparently there is a lot chickens shouldn't be fed. Fortunately, most have the sense not to eat some of these things, but

you never know what can happen.

You should consult this website and refer to it like I do when I am not sure about something:
http://www.poultryhelp.com/toxicplants.html

Hope that helps!

 

[fleurdelisky]

Thanks for the website.
Christi

 

[nu2chixinmo]

GOD, All the stuff on there. I am a little concerned because I let my babies out to free range the other day, and a few of them found some wild mushrooms, I tried to get rid of them, but they found more. I hope they will be ok

Also, I had a question about feeding. My older group of chickens will be ready to start the layer feed in a few weeks, but I also have my younger chickens in with the older ones(so good so far). The problem is they share the same feeder. So, how do I go about trying to separate the feeding of the layer and the starter. I have put back in their small feeder for the little ones, but am sure that they will also still try to get into the other feed. Any good ideas for me?
Thanks - Nichole

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
Hmm chocolate and meat products a no no? I've shared chocolate chips and left over meat scraps from broth making with them... I think they might know what not to eat. I even toss out raw potato skins to them and they just don't touch them.

 

[Frozen Feathers]

I've always fed my chickens table scraps...including meat scraps(onlycooked though). I have for about 6yrs. Before feed stores came to exist that's how chickens were fed...

 

[V Chic Chick]

Don't feed avocadoes, uncooked potato or chocolate. I prefer not to feed them meat or fish.

The golden rule is no rotten or mouldy stuff - they more than likely will get botulism the first time you feed it.

 

[hisbride]

I'm so glad not to see dandelions ont he list. My kids give those to the hens all the time. I know I have likely given them chickweed because whenever I weed I through what I have pulled into the run. Either it didn't bother them or they didn't eat it.

 

[naturemom]

I thought that list was a bit extreme. It included a lot of plants that are very nutritious and safe and that chickens enjoy, such as chickweed, lambsquarters and clover. I suppose those might be bad if they ate them in huge amounts, but I doubt very much that the amounts they are likely to eat would be harmful. Kind of like the warnings for people not to eat too much spinach because of the oxalic acid-it's not as if spinach is poison! If all of the plants on this list were truly toxic to chickens, then free-ranging would be dangerous because many of the plants listed are very common and chickens will gobble them up.
I certainly don't mean to imply that all of the plants on this list are safe, because many of them really are potentially harmful, but to say that CHICKens should not eat CHICKweed strikes me as rather silly.

 

[silkiechicken]

Haha, anything in large quantities will kill you. Even water. I feel as long as the birds have free choice and aren't starving, they won't poison themselves.