Tomatoes?

[Chick1043]

Can chickens have tomatoes?

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Mine like them, but my peacocks LOVE them!

Feed away!

 

[kizanne]

I sure hope so. Mine have been getting 1-2 tomatoes a day. I grow organic so some split or get spots and any that touch the ground get ants. So any that aren't perfect get cut up and sent to the chickens with alittle millet and black soldier fly larvae. They love their daily snack so much the feed rate is greatly reduced.

 

[Denninmi]

Yes. In fact, tomato foliage is edible, even to humans, apparently, or at least not toxic to the point of being a problem in small quantities. There was an article in the NY Times food section a year or so ago about a couple of avent garde chefs using tomato foliage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/d...l=1&adxnnlx=1282575793-wNCFNqNTvT2VPM3ROlhJxg

A lot of people will let chickens, turkeys, geese or ducks into their gardens in the fall to clean up things like the tomato vines -- they will just leave behind the tough woody stems, making the rest of the cleanup a lot easier on the gardener.

Last year, I had the worst problem getting deer to stay away from my tomato plants. They stripped them bare a couple of times. I finally tried dusting with dried blood in early July, and did manage to get enough for the year, although not nearly the crop I should have had.

 

[Amyh]

Yes, they love tomatoes! I often will glean a box of split tomatoes from the farmer's market and just dump them in the run. They love them!

 

[itsmechrissy]

Good to know, I always have a ton of extra tomatoes!!!

 

[SUEHUMP]

I give mine toms and they love them, do you know if you have to cook veg peelings for chickens

 

[newchickmom]

I had to fence my chickens out of the garden just so I could have some!

 

[Chick1043]

OK! Thanks!