Elderberries safe for chickens?

[larissap112]

 

[gardenwrites88]

Thank you for the information, website for elderberry jelly and about toxicity. I will probably not give the mash to them just to be safe. I have noticed that they stick their beaks up at some things they may know they should not eat. I'm beginning to lear that chickens are not as dumb as some say they are. They may even be smarter than we humans when it comes to some situations. I love them and call them my puffy butts.

 

[Vincible1]

Interesting thread. I had the same questions as I had planted some blue elderberries this year.

Check out this site:
Turns out, everyone like blue elderberries!

http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs_sanic5.pdf

 

[Rachel2point5]

I was looking here last night for answers and thought I'd add the answer that I'd discovered. I was making elderberry tea for iced tea, so I was using three bags of Buddha Tea (the only ingredient is organic elderberry). After steeping the bags in the pitcher and cooling, I opened them up and dumped them onto a shallow dish and fed them to my six laying hens. Now, these gals are quite spoiled and have absolutely no problem turning up their beaks at something that they don't like. They seemed quite taken with these little berries, and when I checked this morning, they were all gone and all of my ladies seem to be suffering no ill effects from having eaten them. So, there's my two cents if it's at all helpful!

 

[CAmountaingirl]

I did feed the strained cooked elderberries, nobody died. Will probably make syrup again this year.

 

[GirlHusband]

My new chickens LOVE eating the leaves off of the black lace elderberry bush we have. Does anyone know if this is something I should be wary of? (The bush itself is fine... quite tall, and they are just going after the lower new spring leaves.)

EDIT: They have already been eating them for a few days with no ill effects visible.

 

[FiddleChics]

This was a fascinating thread. I"m planning on planting elderberries this year on the property. Most of my research says that elderberry contains cyanide... same as apple seeds. I found this video from a large elderberry distribution farm in Missouri, & it was pretty informative. In this video, he's actually planting elderberries around his coop, for shade in summer & said the chickens like the berries... so I guess... it's all good! The video's called "BIGGEST CHICKEN SECRET?!?! ELDERBERRY PROPAGATION AND PLANTING"

 

[svh]

My chickens previous owner is one of my best friends.

He has a nice elderberry patch around his former coop area, and last fall, cut several back, leaving the umbels on the ground for the chickens, who quickly stripped the branches of all berries.

They ate a lot of berries, mostly ripe, but many green ones as well, with no ill effects.

 

[twendt]

I love me some good old MONTY PYTHON!!

 

[twendt]

My chickens eat tomato leaves, all are living , and they ate the heck out of my eggplants.