It is safe????

[epitidios]

I want to expand the area that my flock has outside the coop, so they can get to eat grass and various kinds of green plants. I noticed that apart from grass, various kinds of mushrooms also grow. Is it safe to have them in a area like this? Any chance to eat the mushrooms? Do they know which plants and mushrooms are poisonous?

Thanks in advance.

 

[caspernc]

I would like to know too. Horses do but sometimes do eat somethng poisonous but not often. Cows do too.

 

[Chickenaddict]

Good question. I have all kinds of nasty shrooms around here but my chickens seem to know enough to leave the bad ones alone. Thats not to say chickens never eat things that are bad.

 

[Ohhhdear]

I had a huge amount of mushrooms of all types sprouting in my chicken backyard this summer and fall. Most of the fungi my girls ignored... that is to say they didn't EAT it. But they DID peck and scratch it apart looking for bugs and centipedes and other creepie crawlies which infest wild mushrooms. What a mess! They ignored the small "fairy circle" type mushrooms completely.
They tore apart the brown, tan and white fungi which sprouted near tree stumps, looking for bugs.

I've tried giving them leftover sauteed portobello and white commercially grown mushrooms which I know are at least human-safe, and the chickens eat them but they're not the first thing they gobble.