Can I feed my chickens salmon berries, blackberries and huckleberries?

[Pugerpillar]

I have 2 month old chickens and they really like berries but what type of berries are they allowed? I feed them huckleberries sometimes but I don't know how much I should be giving them. I have a few salmon berries/blackberries as well but I am not certain if they can safely eat them or not.

 

[SweetTea&Chicks]

Chickens can eat blackberries but I'm not sure about salmon berries.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you can eat them they can eat them. It's that simple. As to how many. If they can clean them up in 10 minutes it is not too many. If they can't, yeah probably too many.

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

If you can eat them they can eat them. It's that simple. As to how many. If they can clean them up in 10 minutes it is not too many. If they can't, yeah probably too many.

They can't eat avocados!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Chickens can eat the meat of avocados. The avocado pits and skin contain persin, a fungicidal toxin which can be toxic in quantity.
The can eat virtually all berries. In May and June, the ground around my chicken houses is covered with mulberries. They eat a lot when they come out in the morning but soon get tired of them and eventually ignore them.
I really don't worry about them. They tend to self regulate if enough variety of food is available.

 

[CannedMonster]

Berries are easy.
But fruit with pits you have to be careful with.
My understanding is that the pits of cherries contain cyanide.
I have a cherry tree that’s in a part of my yard they can’t access but when I eat them I pit them before giving any to my birds.

 

[Tesumph]

Berries are easy.
But fruit with pits you have to be careful with.
My understanding is that the pits of cherries contain cyanide.
I have a cherry tree that’s in a part of my yard they can’t access but when I eat them I pit them before giving any to my birds.

Many fruit pits and seeds contain cyanide, as well as other toxins as mentioned, some in larger quantities than others.
I’ve heard my whole life not to feed dogs apple cores for this reason, but have yet to hear of a dog dying from apple seeds. Still better safe than sorry I suppose.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Pits or seeds of many fruits, including apples, peaches, ans plums contain cyanide, yet I have those trees where the chickens eat the fallen fruit or I toss overripe fruit in the run where they can eat them seeds and all. And they do. I've found plum pits in the gizzards of chickens I've butchered.

Those things contain cyanide but the chickens don't die. I've swallowed apple seeds but did not die. How can that be, cyanide is a poison? Dosage. There might be enough cyanide in them to kill a teeny tiny insect but the chickens or us would have to eat an awful lot of them to be effected. Their crop isn't that big. They can't eat that many.

Practically anything they or you eat can be harmful in huge quantities, but in general we or they just can't eat enough for it to harm us. Cabbage contains a substance that can be harmful but you would need to eat pounds of cabbage every day for two to three weeks for it to build up enough to cause problems. White potatoes contain a substance that can be harmful but a normal person would have to eat about 50 to 60 pounds of white potatoes at a sitting to get enough to affect us. The liver is pretty good about removing that from out bodies so for potatoes it would have to be at one sitting. Can you eat 50 pounds of potatoes at a time? Yet I've seen blogs warning people to never eat white potatoes because of this substance.

 

[Tesumph]

Can you eat 50 pounds of potatoes at a time?

Is that a challenge?!
Hehe.
If those conspiracy bloggers knew of all the trace amount of toxins in every food we eat, they’d starve to death before educating themselves.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Forget the natural toxins.
Do they eat processed 'foods' that contain artificial flavors, artificial colors, artificial sweeteners, MSG, GMO, high fructose corn syrup, etc. that the FDA says are safe? That's where the danger lies. Your body can deal with some natural toxins but has no idea what to do with red dye #6, disodium guanylate or aspartame.