Growing potatoes with chickens?

[Tylt33]

Does anyone here grow potatoes and keep chickens? I've read that potato plants and parts of the peels are poisonous to chickens, but I also grow tomatoes and daffodils and they don't bother those. Should I be worried about my chickens eating the plants and dying if I grow potatoes, or have I worried too much about this? I wasn't sure what forum to put this in, so I thought that I would go with it here...

Thank you!

 

[Fred's Hens]

I raise both potatoes and chickens. Chickens are pretty smart at an instinct level and don't normally bother those things centuries of imprinting tells them to leave alone. That said, my gardens are OFF LIMITS to my hens and not because I'm worried about poison.

 

[tigtoy]

be carefull they might just try to dig em out of their roots.

 

[donrae]

My girls had access to a few potato plants last year and I don't think they ate any. They also have access to all my potato peels, they just don't eat them. But they will gorge on styrafoam

go figgure.

Any other veggies are pretty much fair game, though.

 

[BWKatz]

They will eat potato plants and potatoes. The only poison to them is if the potatoes get sunburned and develop green skin. Do not let them eat the green skin.

 

[sunnyvera]

Over the weekend, I was making mashed potatoes for hubby, well, the water boiled out and they smelled and tasted burned. Not too bad for chicks, not not for our family. YUK. The chickies ate them right up - peel and all. Go figure.

 

[PhoenixAngel429]

We had a potato patch and they didn't bother them. Ours would peck the tomato plants. I toss out old potatoes to ours and they will chase it and not eat it. However, they LOVE apples.