grapes and elderberries

[cheri222]

We are in the process of building our first coop and looking for things to plant around the coop that are chicken friendly. It looks like elderberry leaves can be toxic. Grape leaves toxic to dogs. Anyone know about chickens? All the things I have seem to be toxic (rose of sharon, hosta, azelea, lillies). I really wanted to use sweet annie because of the scent, thats out too. Climbing beans or peas? Can the leaves be eaten. The coop is going into an ugly area of the yard and I just have need to green it up a little.
Cheryl

 

[SeramaLife]

I read somewhere that elderberries are poisonous to chickens, but I don't know what part of them. Before I read that, I fed a gallon of berries to my chickens and they were fine.

 

[farmerKEN]

My chickens never ate my hostas or rose of sharon. Not that they knew to avoid poisonous things (they loved peeling paint)

 

[pokeytolman]

We have a grapevine covering one side of the run & the chickens have completely denuded the lower 2' of the vine, so I hope the leaves aren't toxic. They appear to love the leaves. As for elderberry, it is my understanding that the leaves & green berries are toxic, but the ripe berries are fine for birds. I actually just bought an elderberry and I emailed the company to ask this very question, and this is what they told me, so I didn't plant it near the run. On the other 3 sides of the run, I planted cucumbers, scarlet runner beans, nasturtiums, and climbing spinach (malabar spinach).