black watermelon seeds for chickens?

[mommachick1]

Funny thing happened last year with watermelon seeds and chickens. We had moved to our new place in December 2011, and bought our first ever chickens as chicks in March 2012. We made a few raised beds for a garden that Spring, but knew we wanted to plan and prepare a big "in ground" vegetable garden for 2013 season. So we dumped all our chicken manure and bedding from cleaning the coops from our new chickens into this area we started to till. Meantime we had one of the hottest Spring & Summers here in Tennessee, so we gave watermelon and cantaloupes to our chickens. I even made watermelon balls with an ice cream scoop and then froze them to help with the heat and keep our chickens cooled off. Last September, Dad came back from the dump/new garden area and wanted to know if I planted watermelon seeds, and I told him no, why? He said because we have watermelons growing up there! All day I pondered, how in the world could we have watermelons growing if no one planted the seeds? Then it dawned on me..........The chickens ate the watermelon & seeds and those seeds must of been in their poop, and then we dumped the poop in the new garden area, and THAT'S how we got the watermelons!!! And then we fed THOSE watermelons back to the chickens again, a true "Circle of Life" thing! LOL

 

[fussypuss]

I believe their okay.

 

[aorian star]

Growing up, we used to feed our chickens the left over watermelons, seeds and all, but never hurt them, and they love the treat. My new flock, got their first watermelon left-overs at 12 weeks old, and it didn't seem to give them any problems either. I wouldn't feed any kind of hard seeds before you start giving them grit, which most recommend starting at 8 weeks, simply because they will need the grit to help break down the dark seeds' hard husk. I read an article about offer chickens table scraps including meat, but I really prefer not to give them any meat... my dogs would protest as well! LOL! As you all know, chickens are naturally omnivores, but I'd prefer their meat comes in the form of whatever insects they can catch. It is very funny to watch my 3 weeks old Rhode Island Red chicks chase a small moth that happens into the brooder!

 

[AZChickenQueen]

Yes, with watermelon or most any other type of melon it is fine to feed them the whole sheebang or just the seeds - they looove it! I use the cheapo misters that you can buy at Home Depot to keep my girls cool (and egg production up) this time of year. Just buy one of the $25 kits and it hooks right to the end of a garden hose. You can run it underneath the coop if it is tall enough, or if you have an enclosure with a topt like I do, just use some fine-guage wire to hang it from that. It is very important here in the desert to make sure they have lots of clean, fresh water at all times and also access to shaded areas.

 

[HenHutNut]

Potatoes, tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, eggplant, tomatillos, tamarios, pepinos, pimentos, paprika, and cayenne peppers are classified as nightshade foods Substances found in all nightshades are called alkaloids Atropine , Scopolamine and Solanine are the toxins in nightshade plants. The Atropine side of the family makes cholinergic antagonists causing depression of the parasympathetic system , while the Solanine producers make cholinesterase inhibitors , causing stimulation of the para sympathetic branch of the central nervous system . In other words if chickens eat too many seeds or greens from the nightshade family. It can cause them to lose muscle control" Twitching or unable to move" or organs shut down. So if feeding them tomatoes and peppers make sure the seeds and stems are removed. They contain the highest amounts of these compounds.

This scares me. My garden is fenced, but if they get in, they may get sick.

 

[AZChickenQueen]

Well, I feed my girls tomatoes all of the time - granted, usually just one that has split and the bugs have gotten to between 6 chickens. I think you really need to look at what sort of quantity would actually be considered toxic before you freak out. Also, chickens aren't the brightest critters, but they do seem to have a basic sense of self-prervation so probably won't eat stuff that is really toxic to them. As evidenced by the fact that they have not attempted to eat the fake lawn that I put in their run to keep the dust down. It's actually pretty cool - I hose it down which causes the bugs to come up through the loose-weave back and the girls grub and scratch in it for bugs but they have never actually tried to eat the plastic "grass". I have given them cooked potatoes with no ill effects. Once again, just don't give them something that YOU wouldn't eat - like the leaves from a potato plant or a raw potato, LOL! I would be far more worried about them getting in your fenced garden and destroying every plant that you have by digging it up looking for bugs!

 

[Texas Chickens]

Is it okay to feed them watermelon seeds?

Chickens eat everything ... If they don't like it then they won't eat it. Wouldn't worry about black watermelon seeds since you don't know what they do eat when you didn't give it to them. Mine eat anything and everything that comes along and they find. Almost like little 2 legged garbage trucks....

 

[Kim95037]

Wow I havent seen a watermelon with black seeds in eons! Everything here in California is seedless now, I didnt even think they had watermelon with black seeds anymore. They do have some very flimsy pale seeds that are soft and thats the first thing my chickens go for.

 

[aorian star]

Wow. Never heard this before. Nightshade is deadly to humans as well. Wonder why Salsa, which is full of tomato seeds and pepper seeds doesn't cause us problems? I'll have to check into this! Thanks for the info! I did know that tomatoes were part of the Nightshade family, but didn't know the seeds were the dangerous parts!

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I've never come across information saying that tomato seeds are toxic. Even the foliage isn't particularly toxic all the time. The levels raise at certain times during it's stage of growth. I thought the problem with hot pepper seeds was the extreme heat in the seeds, compared to the rest of the pepper and that's why it's sometimes recommended to take them out. Especially with dried peppers. Also, the seeds can carry some bitterness. Hot peppers get fed to parrots all the time, including the seeds. They have a lot less body mass than chickens.

Watermelon seeds remind me of summers at my great grandma's place. We used to have contests to see who could spit a seed the farthest. They even got my prim aunt to participate. We all stood in a long line and one by one gave it a try. This was 50 years ago. It sounded silly to me, but turned out to be quite fun and a good icebreaker.