death of flock - poisoning?

[pamkerley]

Thanks for that wonderful answer. I think the bushes just berried, I had not noticed the berries before the chickens died. The bushes are not near the run and the chickens have to jump a chain link fence to get to them. They do this often b/c the dogs food is there too and they try to eat it before the dogs can finish it (small breed dogs). We have had unusually dry weather here and pretty hot for a few days. They do have access to my compost heap (or what used to be a heap, they pretty much leveled it with their scratching) and sometimes the scraps I put out there have sat for a day inside, waiting on me to get it out there. I guess mold could grow there. I wondered about apple seeds after reading over the "seeds toxic to birds" list I found. I do throw cores in the pile but I don't think there would be enough for all the birds to be sick. I wondered if they had gotten into something liquid since it has been so dry. They wander all around the yard (10 acres) and the water I put for them is in their run so if they were thirsty they might have drank something (can't think of what) from my husband's building. I keep coming back to those juniper berries and I wonder if they would be attracted to them. There is a blueberry bush inside the same fence that was a favorite for them last year when I first began free ranging them. We 7-dust the garden but that has been happening since Feb with no problem.

As you can see, I have wracked my brain and really have no good answers. Hope to figure something out b/c I like the idea of "free range" .

 

[pamkerley]

I think I am going to post again with "Juniper" in my title to see if anyone else free ranges with these plants around.

 

[pamkerley]

New information. I just went out and looked at the cedar trees. They have small blue berries all over them except at the bottom, chicken high. There are 9 very large trees and enough missing berries to hurt 4 chickens, if they would hurt them. My new question is when did the berries arrive? Not really sure.

 

[Katy]

I have a cedar tree that part of my run is under and has been for the last 30+ years. I know the berries drop in the pen, but I've never had any problems with them. Cedar waxwings love to eat them.

 

[ivan3]

Wish I had some other ideas for you. As I mentioned in previous post, we have Many toxic shrubs/annuals/perennials growing, as well as Water Hemlock in some of the ditches. Considering that the terpenes in Juniper berries are in the same family of chemicals as the terpenes in pine tar (and some no-pick formulas) and, considering how much of the pine tar our sparring turks and busybody, rooster-comb-pecking, hens have inadvertantly consumed over the years, I'd still be looking for another suspect. Not saying that it wasn't the Junipers, but without necroscopies or, getting a chook and purposely feeding it berries to find out how many of them it would take to cause death, it is hard to know.

 

[Siler]

I'm giving this a bump just to keep the ideas flowing. I have many full-sized Juniper bushes on the west side of my house and the ladies love to forage near them. I'm worried they might eat the berries. I'm so sorry for your loss. I hope you find an answer.