Black Walnut tree?

[crchickens]

I am sorry if this is not the right place for this question, but I was not sure where it would go.

Outside of our coop and pasture, on the property line, a black walnut sapling is growing, and my neighbor is excited about it. I thought I remembered them being toxic to chickens. It is about 15 feet or so away from my pasture, and the coop is another 5 feet from the fence, but should I be worried? Is this tree going to harm my hens? We can not free range because we are rural and a fox is killing all of my neighbor's ducks, so the chickens will be in a chicken train when they are out and about. I could accidentally mow it over, if need be, but I want to keep peace, so if it will cause no harm, then I will let it grow.

 

[Nicole01]

Don't mow over it. That wouldn't be nice.

I'm not quite sure what is poisonous? The leaves? The nuts will be impossible for them to open, they are protected in a very big shell.

You have nothing to worry about if your chickens are kept inside all the time. We have poisonous tree leaves everywhere on our property. I let my hens free range. None of them have gotten sick or died.

Also, our run and chicken coop has to be 50 or 70 feet from the property line in our ordinance. I'm pretty sure we clear that, but 15 feet is close. My hens are very noisy when locked up. I spend my day watching over them, so they stay off the neighbors land. My one neighbor does not want to see them even on our property. I was just talked to last week. I keep an eye on my hens, so I know they didn't cross that line. Anyways we are putting up a chain link fence next year, so there are no issues. I'm sure they are upset about that. I'm one not to cause problems.

We are planting a black walnut tree in our yard this fall too.

 

[hencackle]

There are several black walnut trees in my current back yard which provide great shade for my chickens. The only problem I've had was when a nut fell on top of the "forehead" of one of my girls. She died a few days later. There's just been that one unfortunate black walnut incidence in the past 10 years.

I'm considering putting in a couple pecan trees in the future chicken lot of the mini-farm we recently bought. The nuts are smaller, weigh less than black walnuts, so I hope falling pecans won't injure any chickens. There's no shortage of black walnut seedlings in the lot thanks to the squirrels.

Those are coming out!

Edited to add: Pecan trees also produce juglone, just not as much as black walnuts.

 

[ladyrsanti]

We have HUGE walnut trees back by our barn, next to but not over the coop. The hulls of the walnuts have to taste so bad that they wouldn't want them, especially once they rot and are accessible. Foul stuff. I use the walnuts to dye wool with and let me tell you, it's nasty. The leaves I don't know about. I'm new to chickens and couldn't tell you one way or the other about ingested walnut leaves. The holes in the wiring on my chicken run aren't big enough for the leaves to pass through so I haven't even thought about it. Someday I hope to free range them and I honestly haven't worried about the walnut trees. Maybe I should? I don't know. I just assume they wouldn't eat what doesn't taste good. They don't seem to care for the paint chips that come off the barn occasionally which was one of my main concerns.

 

[donrae]

Leave the tree and let your neighbor be happy. My girls free ranged with two black walnut trees for years with no problems.

 

[crchickens]

Thanks! I will leave the tree. We have acreage and our coop is very far from his house. We have no zoning where we are and can put the coop right at the edge of the property line, if we wanted too. The fencing for our goats and pigs is 15, maybe 20 feet off of our property line, and the coop is inside the fencing 5 more feet. Our pasture is as far from our house, and his, as possible. I actually have to take quite a hike out there to care for my animals. Our neighbor LOVES the animals and brings his grand kids out to see them and give them treats regularly. My husband also just told me that the tree is actually on our property, not the line, but I still don't want to get rid of it if my neighbor is excited about it, and the shade will be nice too. I just did not want to poison my animals.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Black Walnuts produce a hormone called Juglans that is toxic to certain types of plants...tomatos do not do well around Black Walnut trees...the birds will be fine though. They will enjoy the shade.

 

[Red Barn Farms]

I see no problem either. We have two huge black walnut trees which are close to the chickens run area. They don't seem to notice the walnuts on the ground and always just walk over them. Walnut trees produce a large amount of shade.