How to stop our hen from hopping the fence

[aart]

This is why you don't often see bees working tomato blossoms.

Wouldn't this be because there is no nectar?.....
...and/or because the pollen has no nutritive value for them.

 

[Sylvester017]

Wouldn't this be because there is no nectar?.....
...and/or because the pollen has no nutritive value for them.

Tomatoes are from the toxic Nightshade family of plants like white potatoes, eggplant, tomatillos, chili and bell peppers, goji berries, some huckleberries, etc etc, the list goes on and on. I think even cilantro and celery happen to be nightshade related. There are over 2500 plants in the nightshade family and I don't believe any of them need bee pollination. Not all parts of nightshade plants are toxic -- for instance, tomato vines and leaves are toxic to humans, animals, and most common garden insects, and the peels and seeds have high concentration of lectin that bothers digestive processes (we limit our beans and cashew nut intake because of the lectin in them), yet the meat of a tomato is quite safe. Therefore, when I freezer-store my garden tomatoes I blanch and peel off the skins and scoop out the gel and seeds before freezing. I'm sure you've all heard how toxic the green uncooked potato peels are for chickens -- we stay away from deep orange holiday yams as well but use the light-skinned sweet potato instead for our mashed potatoes.

My chickens won't touch nightshade celery, bell peppers, cilantro, or any of the cruciferous veggies like kale, cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli or cauliflower cooked or not -- from what I've researched the cruciferous veggies play some havoc on the thyroid so we don't bother giving these veggies to family or pets either. Everyone's digestive system is different and can tolerate nightshade or cruciferous veggies but we've decided with our allergies it's best for ourselves to limit them.

 

[Sylvester017]

What’s wrong with yams? You know, if you look too closely at ANY kind of food you‘ll find that they contain some compound or other that is toxic when isolated and/or consumed in huge amounts. Even strawberries. But they don’t pose any problem at all when eaten in traditional ways and normal amounts.
Anyway... My chickens adore cabbage and it’s a popular treat around here - especially in the fall when everything us dry and brown and I have to rely on produce from the farmers market to give them something fresh and green (or red) - they are handeling it just fine - I am not making cabbage a mainstay of their diet. No need to overthink these things....

Not everyone's digestive systems are the same but in our case we eliminated the upsetting or allergenic foods from our diet and also take a cue from the chickens about what foods they eat or don't eat too. And yes, any food can have problems, which is why we had allergy tests and followed therapy menu's for what worked best for us. About yams -- the dark orange Thanksgiving yams are the nightshade family while the very light-colored actual official "sweet potato" is from the morning-glory family. Why the food industry and restaurants call yams "sweet potatoes" when they aren't even in the same plant family is misleading for people that have allergies or digestive problems. The food markets in our shopping area specify yams separately from sweet potatoes. Some sweet potato chips manufacturers are finally catching on to identify the difference from yams in their packaged dried chips which is important to dietary restrictions like ours. Terra brand Sweet Potato chips (no salt added, non GMO) specify that their sweet potato chips are actual sweet potato and not the common yam. I like Siete brand Cassava chips best because they use more natural oils like coconut or avocado oil to make their chips. Since we've been off of gluten, sugar, and corn, in our diet we rely on veggie chips to use like bread for dipping into soft-boiled eggs, etc. We lost 25 lbs each just by cutting out our offending foods so giving up gluten, sugar, and corn, has had its plus side for us. Everyone has to find what works best for them.

 

[Sylvester017]

We've had the Hav-a-hart trap set for a couple nights with cat food and last night just as the stray Calico cat was ready to approach it in the side yard a friend drove up in their van and scared it away - darn! Now we have to wait and see when/if the cat returns to that side. She jumps really high up to the block wall top. We can keep dogs out fine with our block wall and iron gates, but stray cats will always be a problem because of their agility -- the skinny emaciated cats can easily squeeze thru fence posts.

 

[Sylvester017]

Having a variety of pets is what we decided to avoid, sometimes various animals get along with each other and sometimes not -- it was either a pet dog, a cat, or some hens (no roo's are zoned here). DH never had chickens before so we got the limited 5 hens to try out. We've cycled through 18 chickens in 6-1/2 yrs to get down to the breeds we like. I like sweet Ameraucana's but had a couple girls who suffered in our horried SoCal climate so I don't get heavy or full-feathered downy breeds anymore. Love the smoother-feathered Breda and perky Dominique. DH loves his Silkies but we're down to one left -- she's our oldest hen and kinda special.

Whenever we had new pullets, they would chase stray cats out of the yard but once they start laying eggs they get wary and don't chase the strays. Maybe our 3 new Dominiques will eventually chase out the stray cat -- but they are only 3 months old and still in their chick stage. We almost caught the stray Calico in the Hav-A-Hart cage since we found some of her fur caught in the door. We'll keep trying to catch her. I don't want to use poisoned food in case lizards, wild birds, or rodents eat it and die in the yard -- I don't want our chickens possibly eating poisoned carcasses. I do love Calico cats -- had one on Mom's farm -- great mousers. Just don't like people who leave their pets behind when they move away and leave us to deal with their irresponsibility.

 

[Swiftbow]

Understandable. I do think having our own cat tends to keep the other neighborhood cats from coming around (at least most of the time). Ours can't stand other felines in her yard. The funny part is how convinced she is that the chickens are after her... they never are, they're running at me or my wife because we might have treats.