Mulberries Safe?

[Straubby]

Ok So This Is My First Year With My Flock I Have A Large Mulberry Tree And I Wonder If They Will Hurt My Girls If They Eat Them.there Isnt Any Way To Keep Them Away Once The Berries Start To Fall Unless I Lock Them Up For A Couple Months.i Literally Have Had Hundreds Of Wild Birds In My Yard At One Time Just Eating The Berries On The Ground So I Know The Girls Will Have Access To A Ton Of Them. Other Then Apple Seeds Are Any Other Fruits Bad For Them?

 

[LarryPQ]

They will be fine. Perhaps a bit of diahrea if they have to many, but no big whoop.

 

[sgtmom52]

Quote:
Their poop will probably be darker than usual too.

 

[Straubby]

thanks we were sitting watching the chickens the other day and it hit me i wasnt sure .appreciate the input

 

[LarryPQ]

mmm....dyed poo.

 

[sgtmom52]

Quote:

 

[A.T. Hagan]

I have a mulberry tree in my henyard that has been dropping fruit for weeks now. The first thing the hens will do when I open the pop door is run out looking for fruit!

 

[darkmatter]

Quote:
See my BYC page pics. I have two mature Illinois everbearing Mulberry trees in my large run. I put them there years ago with the intention of feeding my chickens. I have since also planted apple and persimmon trees to extend the free food season. I also grow tomatoes in chicken proof cages in the run that grow up and over the cage onto a trellis to drop the free food to the chickens. The darn chicken run tomatoes grow better then my garden cage tomatoes. My garden shares a fence line with the coop run and surplus/spoiled produce gets tossed to the chickens. When I'm done in the fall with the garden harvest, then I open the door from the chicken run to the fenced garden and the chickens clean it up and even till the garden for me over the fall and winter.

 

[chicken_china_mom]

There was a mulberry tree here when we moved in, and last year when I got my chickens, we placed the coop right next to it. Then, when it started to bear fruit, my family and I would go out and pull the berries off and toss them to the birds. My mom is actually excited that the tree has berries, even though they aren't ripe yet, because she knows she can collect them and feed the birds. I planted 3 more mulberry trees (Illinois Everbearing as well) as well as apricot, peach, and bing cherry, though those will take a very LONG time to grow. I also planted blackberries, raspberries, blueberries (not that I'm holding out hope for the blueberries, I think they died already

), and I planted Hansen cherry bushes along the edge of the chicken yard without the mulberry tree, but I planted a mulberry tree inside the run. It's a cutting, so no leaves yet. Once it starts some leaves I will encircle it in wire so they can't eat the leaves off it and kill it. There's a crab apple "thing" in that chicken yard and the birds have been munching on the leaves to it. I don't know really what it is cause it looks more like an ornamental bush than a tree, and I hate it, so if the birds kill it, it's fine by me! They like to dust bathe under it, and the ducks rest under it too. In my area mulberry trees grow like mad, so I can walk down to the local pond and collect bags full of berries to give to my birds. Year before last my kids went collecting and I made a mulberry cobbler out of them. Quite yummy!