Comprehensive list of poisonous plants and trees

[Quilting Hen]

I just looked at the PoultryMD site. Great visual on toxic plants. Ferns are shown as toxic but my chickens eat on them all the time. Should I dig them all up? Many of the other plants shown they leave alone so not sure why they eat ferns.

 

[CrazyTalk]

There are a couple things on the list I disagree with

. We run an organic chicken farm. We allow our chickens a lot of pasture, and I have found they eat daffodil shoots and they love my Japanese cherry blossoms. When they fall from the tree they flock to get them. The list states "cherry and daffodil ". Our chickens have been federally inspected and are healthy!

The problem with these sort of lists is that they're almost always pulled from the USDA's list of plants toxic to livestock - which the USDA clearly states isn't really a verified product. Plants are added in a non-species specific manner, and are added based on reports form farmers,etc - the problem is that those reports are often along the lines of "I put my horse in this pasture that has nothing but nettle and now hes sick" - they're often situations where the real issue is close confinement and very little selection of forage - where if you removed those conditions the animal might eat a handful of plants but be fine.

Toxicology is entirely about dose - EVERYTHING is toxic in the right quantity - you can literally kill yourself drinking too much water. Many of the plants on these lists are only a problem in large quantities (or in situations where the animals have nothing else to feed on) .

Apricot and Cherry are probably on there because the kernel/seed (which is inside the pit) contains some cyanide - but they're usually not a problem because most birds can't get through the pits/don't fine the pits attractive, etc. You put something with a stronger jaw/teeth (like a goat) in a cherry/apricot/peach orchard - and you may have problems.

 

[allencullen]

Hi

There are some mock orange trees in my chooks' run. They never seem to eat any of the fallen berries, leaves or flowers, & the girls are generally pretty healthy and lively, so is it actually a problem for these mock orange to be there?

Thanks

 

[Rebekkalynn]

Awesome answer!!! I believe you are absolutely correct in your assessment of the lists.

 

[beginnergirl]

I just read through part of the list and was concerned. My chickensI eat a number of plants on the list and all appear to be fine.

 

[beginnergirl]

Hi! I know this was an old post, but I had to comment

There are a couple things on the list I disagree with

. We run an organic chicken farm. We allow our chickens a lot of pasture, and I have found they eat daffodil shoots and they love my Japanese cherry blossoms. When they fall from the tree they flock to get them. The list states "cherry and daffodil ". Our chickens have been federally inspected and are healthy!

Also, for anyone who wonders.... They love daylilles... At least the grass part. They ate them though before they came into bloom. So, I don't know about the flowers.

Glad to read that other chickens eat plants on this list. My hens (also fed only organic) eat green beans, black locust seedlings and have sampled day lily leaves. My EE's favorite treat is cherry tomatoes and she comes running when I have some. They have included the stem and tiny leaves which I will take off from now on. But whatever my chickens have eaten hasn't had any obvious ill effects. I try to be very careful with what food my chickens get, but am more concerned about debris in the soil than plants in my yard.

 

[Rebekkalynn]

Hi! My girls don't eat green beans and they don't care for tomatoes. But, here's something funny. They don't touch my green mint, spearmint, or lemon mint..... But they demolished my chocolate mint plant! Roots and all!!! Guess its a girl thing! Lol

 

[chooks4life]

What about smart weed or knotweed? I'm also curious about bindweed since it's part of the morning glory family. I have an abundance of these two this year and have lost 5 birds to the same symptoms in one coop. The other coop which does not have these weeds is fine and healthy.

Thanks for any input!

If you're talking about Japanese Knotweed, no, it's not toxic according to almost everything I've read, though some disagree, but it is harvested in bulk for animal and human fodder in some places and has health benefits.

It's helpful to get the botanical name and a sure ID on a plant being suspected of being toxic, because so many plants share a common name.

'Smartweed' needs more definition. People eat it, but as noted in the article below, there are many species that look very similar.

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As CrazyTalk said, the 'toxic' lists are often far from accurate, and anything is toxic in the right dose even if it is a lifesaver in a lesser dose.

Also, many things are listed as 'toxic' simply because they are dangerous to horses. Horses may be the most sensitive livestock I know of when it comes to having bad reactions to plants other species eat without any negative results.

Bindweed is listed as 'mildly toxic' to 'grazing animals', and in some research killed some mice. That said, toxicity testing done on animals often involves feeding massive amounts to determine the toxic value, and/or starving the animals so they have nothing else to eat, as was done to the mice mentioned below. So outside of laboratory conditions, many toxic plants aren't actually anywhere near so dangerous at all. Just about anything's toxic if you force feed large enough quantities of it.

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Animals that are caged and do not have other sources of greenery often make bad decisions in their diets. But I think your hens might have died of something else.

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Best wishes.

 

[Janice Driggers]

Hello, thanks for posting. I just got started with chickens this year and planted day lillies around their pen, and they have pecked them down (their leaves) quite a bit and never appeared to be sick yet.

 

[Janice Driggers]

Thanks for posting. Your post was a great help, as I have just started raising chickens this year and awaiting eggs. Did you ever get your eggs? What is your egg story then and now? I have mimosa trees and crepe myrtle trees and wonder if you know these are toxic to chickens or not. I noticed they ate some of the flower part of the crepe myrtles. Don't seem sick. Didn't allow them to eat much of it. I heard that the mimosas were toxic. Thanks.