My chicken ate a dried green bean :(

[socalchickens76]

Hello,

I was just out in the garden digging around for grubs and there was a random dried green bean that one of my chickens snatched up before I could get to it. I've read that dried beans are highly toxic to chickens. She just had one dried green bean. Could this possibly be fatal??

Thank you!

 

[AidKD]

Nope! You're chicken will be just fine! My chickens love green beans. They eat them all the time in the summertime. And besides, chickens known what to eat and what not to eat.

 

[socalchickens76]

Are dried green beans ok as well? The dried bean came from an old plant that I hadn't taken out of my garden yet.

 

[AidKD]

Are dried green beans ok as well? The dried bean came from an old plant that I hadn't taken out of my garden yet.

Yep, she'll be okay!

 

[socalchickens76]

Yayyy! Thank you so much!!!

 

[NatJ]

Are dried green beans ok as well? The dried bean came from an old plant that I hadn't taken out of my garden yet.

Dried beans have some amount of toxin, that goes away with cooking, or with soaking & sprouting. Some kinds of beans have more of the toxin than others.

So if you want to feed dried green beans or other beans to the chickens, I would cook them first. But I would not panic about the chicken finding just one bean and eating it. This variety might have low levels of the toxin, or it might have "soaked" in the rain all winter and be safe now-- so I think there is a good chance of the chicken being fine.

(If you want to look up more about the toxin, it is called "phytohaemagglutinin." Don't ask me how to pronounce it!)

 

[socalchickens76]

Dried beans have some amount of toxin, that goes away with cooking, or with soaking & sprouting. Some kinds of beans have more of the toxin than others.

So if you want to feed dried green beans or other beans to the chickens, I would cook them first. But I would not panic about the chicken finding just one bean and eating it. This variety might have low levels of the toxin, or it might have "soaked" in the rain all winter and be safe now-- so I think there is a good chance of the chicken being fine.

(If you want to look up more about the toxin, it is called "phytohaemagglutinin." Don't ask me how to pronounce it!)

Yes, I was just reading about that toxin and it appears that green beans have a low amount of it (thankfully). I am going to be super vigilant about any bean plants going forward.