Chickens In The Garden (Plant toxicity)

[Self sufficient chickens]

Hello, I am planning to put my chickens into my garden to help clear debris and so that they can have some fun! There are still mature tomatoes, cauliflower, squash, strawberries, kale, and sweet potatoes. Are any of these plants toxic to chickens? Any other recommendations?


Thanks!
Self Sufficient Chickens

 

[M-H-Fielding]

Sweet potatoes, maybe... the others sound fine.

 

[imnukensc]

All of those are fine for chickens.

 

[Self sufficient chickens]

Thanks @-7-6- and @imnukensc

 

[rosemarythyme]

If you let them loose to "have at" they should do a pretty good job of picking around things that taste off to them.

 

[Self sufficient chickens]

Great!
Mabey I will be able to make a time-lapse of them tearing it up!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Of all those things on your list I have two comments.

Green regular potatoes are not good for you or chickens. I'm talking about the green color where the tubers have been sunburned. The rest of the tubers are fine. The green isn't actually the problem, that's just chlorophyll, but it's a sign that the tuber has been exposed to sunlight. That exposure concentrates a chemical that can harm you or them. One bite wont kill them or make them sick. They would have to eat more than their crop can hold to get a high enough dosage to be a problem. They won't do that anyway, it tastes bitter to them. They will take one bite and move on to something else. I would not worry about this in the least.

But that's regular potatoes. I don't know how true that is for sweet potatoes, they are in a totally different plant family, the morning glory family. I'd think green sunburned sweet potatoes would be OK but on general principle I'd avoid them. But I also would not worry about them in the garden like that.

Tomato plants are similar. Not tomato fruits, the plant itself. The fruit is fine for them, mine love them. The tomato plant contains a harmful chemical (actually the same one as green regular potatoes) that if eaten in quantity could cause issues. But those also taste bitter. One bite will not hurt them. They may take a bite or two but should move on to something they like a lot better. With all the options they have in your garden I would not worry at all. One thing I would never do, toss a tomato plant into a run totally devoid of anything green. If it is the only thing green they might eat enough to harm themselves. It's the only option.

With all those other options in your garden I would not be the least bit worried about wither of these. .

 

[Self sufficient chickens]

Cool! Thanks @Ridgerunner