Poisonous plants

[new chick 203]

I've known that certain plants are poisonous to animals and you need to be careful. But it never occurred to me that the same rule would apply to the wild meadow (weeds) where I plan to put my coop. We have tons of milk weed and who knows what else out there. Should I be concerned, or are chickens smart enough to not eat them? Will the seeds hurt them?

 

[flockof4]

I've heard that chickens are not "smart enough" to know which plants to avoid. Not sure what plants might be out in your wild meadow. (There's a good list of plants that are toxic to chickens on this site at the very bottom of the treats page.) I've also heard that after 8 months to a year, chickens become less exploratory in their pecking and only go after what they know is "good." Good luck.

 

[new chick 203]

getting a list of plants or weeds is only half the battle. being able to identify them all and getting rid of them is another thing all together. There must be hundreds of things out there. I could go crazy thinking about it. maybe we won't free range.

 

[loverOFchickens]

Mine have been free range in my woods/weed field/yard for over 3 years. Never had any problems with plant poisoning. I even have some ornamental breeds with no problems.

 

[cybercat]

Ok I free range on property that we built our house on 2 years ago that was wild native. I have not ID most plants on it. I do know we have posions ones for some of those i have ID. Like horse nettle, posion oak or ivy, wild privet ect. Chickens eat whatever they want and I have not lost one in a whole year to feed. Hawks yes forage no. Thing is they might eat the poison plants but because they eat so much other stuff it will be minor and not effect them. I have seen my chickens eating paint that was on the grass or off their coop. It never hurt them and coop was fresh painted month before. So chickens can eat thing that we would not and can get away with it as long as they are eating a varried diet. I would not put them in an enclosed pen with just poison plants in it and expect them to survive for that would be overdose. But eating some here and there will not hurt them.