Poisonous Flowers

[Sheameister]

I've read that tulips and daffodils are poisonous to chickens. I have hundreds of them on my property. My question is: Will chickens avoid these poisonous flowers if I let them roam outside their enclosure or do I need to keep them locked up so they don't poison themselves?

 

[nuthatched]

They'll be fine, either they'll ignore them or eat them down to nubs and you won't have to worry about them next year.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I personally do not worry about it. When they free range chickens often have poisonous plants around. They generally know to not eat enough to hurt themselves. People have been keeping chickens for thousands of years that way.

If you have them confined to a bare run and off them something poisonous they might eat enough to hurt themselves if that is the only thing available. But even then they generally know enough not to.

 

[Sheameister]

Thank you so much for your response. There’s so much for me learn. I’ve seen several lists of poisonous plants, but no where have I read anything that says “chickens will generally avoid consuming toxic plants.” I don’t know if they have a built in DANGER response to specific tastes, smells or visual cues. I hate to think of them being harmed by any carelessness on my behalf. Again, thank you for sharing!

 

[alinas2010]

I worried about that a lot too when we first got them, I wanted to rid our property of everything that might hurt them!! Until I monitored them and saw they really didn’t care for anything poisonous…except they will do a drive by snag of some leaves of the tomato plants I set out in containers every year! Idk why they like them because they are poisonous, so I do have to watch them around those. They even stuck their little heads through the fence and ate the neighbors tomato plants bare on the sides closest to the fence. I was both horrified and mortified. But they were fine.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

My chickens eat southern pokeweed and yellow jessamine constantly, both deadly poisonous plants. They seem immune to everything in my area, or at least they know how to avoid things that are deadly poisonous

 

[Sheameister]

I worried about that a lot too when we first got them, I wanted to rid our property of everything that might hurt them!! Until I monitored them and saw they really didn’t care for anything poisonous…except they will do a drive by snag of some leaves of the tomato plants I set out in containers every year! Idk why they like them because they are poisonous, so I do have to watch them around those. They even stuck their little heads through the fence and ate the neighbors tomato plants bare on the sides closest to the fence. I was both horrified and mortified. But they were fine.

Thank you for sharing! I’m going to be planting mostly cucumbers this year. They are absolutely crazy about cucumbers. I’m going to stay away from tomatoes this year. Until I get more comfortable with mixing chickens and plants, I want to keep it safe. But all my spring bulb flowers where there first. I hate to dig them up if I don’t have to!

 

[alinas2010]

Thank you for sharing! I’m going to be planting mostly cucumbers this year. They are absolutely crazy about cucumbers. I’m going to stay away from tomatoes this year. Until I get more comfortable with mixing chickens and plants, I want to keep it safe. But all my spring bulb flowers where there first. I hate to dig them up if I don’t have to!

Yes we’re big fans of cucumbers here, too! The girls loved munching on those leaves, too. As soon as I harvested (and shared the cucumbers, of course) I let the girls have at the bushes, too. They loved it!

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

I also worried about this too and monitored. I noticed the hens just occasionally will peck at a new tulip coming up, but spit it out. I would. be concerned if the poisons plants were in a contained run that they could get curious/bored in. But if they're out where they are walking around other food sources, most I think would not eat too much!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Free range my birds, have since I started. Several poisonous plants on property, a couple very poisonous. "The dosage is the poison". As others have said, the birds generally avoid eating enough of the harmful stuff to be a concern.

When is it a concern? When you have hungry birds in a confined area with no other choice. Example, raising Cx in a mobile chicken tractor accidentally parked over a patch of something toxic.