I have a plum tree in my run. I butcher my chickens for meat. On more than one occasion I’ve found a plum pit in the gizzard when I butcher. They can and will eat plum pits and it does not kill them.
Many animals, including birds, eat a lot of fruits and seeds. Not just our domesticated fruits but a lot of wild fruits. Those seeds contain trace amounts of cyanide yet they don’t die. How can that possibly be? It’s not magic, it’s science. The dosage of cyanide in those seeds is so minute there is not enough to cause any harm. Chickens have been grazing in orchards for thousands of years on small farms and doing quite well thank you.
Practically anything you eat contains something that can harm you in the proper dosage. If you eat over 50 pounds of white potatoes at one sitting you might get enough solanine to harm you, though most people would have to eat over 65 pounds. In one sitting. Despite what my wife says, my stomach isn’t that big and neither is their crop. If you eat about 5 pounds of certain members of the cabbage family every day for a few weeks you can have thyroid problems, possibly fatal problems. Five pounds every day for a few weeks. There is just a tiny teen bit of fact in this yet some people write books, sell column-inches, and make a lot of money by blowing these things out of perspective. Fear can be quite profitable.
If you wish to go out there and try to protect your chickens from this mythical danger go right ahead. You certainly have that right. But I’ll continue tossing apples, peaches and other fruit, including seeds, to my chickens because they enjoy the treat. The plum tree is already in the run so they can get that themselves.
