Should Chickens eat Jujubes

[ChickenPlanter]

I have several jujube trees in my yard, big and small, all loaded down with fruit. This is my first year with chickens (they are 3-4 months old). The ground will soon be littered with jujubes that I won't be able to pick fast enough, or some that just drop on their own for various reasons. The chickens noticed them for the first time yesterday while on their "free time" outside the run. Needless to say, they got a few and loved them before I started to get nervous about the seeds (really, a hard shell inside the fruit that holds 2 seeds in it) - so I moved them back into their coop.
The seeds vary from large to small (seeds vary from 1/8" to 1/2" lengthwise), but they all are oval shaped with pointy ends. They are rather hard, in fact, super hard. I doubt very highly that any chicken would be able to crack them before eating, and most will be too small for them to want to try . The chickens picked some big seeds clean and moved on to other jujubes, but they ate the small seeds whole in the process of devouring the smaller fruits. I am mostly worried about the pointy ends, as I checked with an academic jujube researcher about the safety of eating the seeds and she told me that in China people have prepare soups and tinctures with the seeds for years and years, with no ill effect.
Does anyone here allow their chickens to eat jujubes laying around their property? Has anyone any experience with them eating jujubes and getting hurt? Am I being a nervous hen?

Thanks in advance,
CP

 

[azygous]

Gizzards are like garbage disposals. They are filled with sharp edged gravel and the gizzard itself is capable of intense grinding action. Gizzards handle some amazing stuff, grinding it up into sand size particles that then get pooped out. Be very sure the chickens have suitable grit whether it's natural in your soil or you buy it from a feed store.

This isn't to say that an occasional chicken won't have a problem with seeds like those, but generally, chickens self limit the amount they eat at a given time, allowing for digestion before taking on more. They aren't like a lot of dogs that will keep gorging until they're in trouble.

There is nothing I can find that says jujube seeds are toxic to chickens, so I would keep a check on their crops to be sure they're not slowing down the crop action by doing morning crop checks to be sure their crops are emptying.