Topic of the Week - Toxic treats and foraging

[our12]

I know one thing you should never give your chickens is watermelon. A friend of mine had four hens and a rooster. She tossed a quarter of a seedless watermelon in the pen and they devoured it. About eight hours later she had four dead hens.

Sorry for your losses! Our girls LOVE watermelon and all other melons, seeds and all. Maybe the melons were treated somehow>

 

[Abriana]

Maybe there was something wrong with the melons. My birds love watermelon and I have never known I to cause an issue.

 

[guinealeghorn]

I've tried home grown watermelon before, and my birds won't touch them. Maybe mine are just strange!

 

[Patinas]

Mine love watermelon rinds and I've been giving them to them for at least 3 months when I have some. No ill effects seen.

What I'm worried about now are wild mushrooms in the yard. I live in the NW and we get a huge amount of mushrooms and variety. I found some had grown right outside the coop run gate and I smashed them all with my feet. So many of the mushroom types are toxic, not to mention the psychedelics!

I can't possibly remove them all when they start appearing in the fall so I'm just going to have to hope the chickens know best and will leave them alone.

 

[lilapot]

I know one thing you should never give your chickens is watermelon. A friend of mine had four hens and a rooster. She tossed a quarter of a seedless watermelon in the pen and they devoured it. About eight hours later she had four dead hens.

I don't know... maybe something was wrong with it my chickies love it, I've been feeding it to them for as long as I've had them, no problem.

 

[Nekatlla]

I know one thing you should never give your chickens is watermelon. A friend of mine had four hens and a rooster. She tossed a quarter of a seedless watermelon in the pen and they devoured it. About eight hours later she had four dead hens.

Wow my hens love watermelon rind, we eat the red they eat the green all summer long no issues????

 

[chickengr]

Wow my hens love watermelon rind, we eat the red they eat the green all summer long no issues????

only pesticides from watermelon will harm chickens.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Tell me more, just so I know and can tell my brother. Thanks. What @Ridgerunner said sounds about right, though I would not know. Once I had a chicken die because of bacteria in the water we weren't cleaning. Now we have been putting baking soda or vinegar in the water.

Vinegar neutralizes baking soda and baking soda neutralizes vinegar. So which is it?

 

[priscillaJ]

Last fall shortly after I got my flock, I realized I was letting them forage in an area that had a lot of buttercup in the grass. I was in a panic all night - running out to the coop every hour to make sure no one was dead. Everyone was fine. Then about a month ago I had them loose in my garden when I realized I hadn't blocked them off from the rhubarb. When I got out there they had obviously been picking around the rhubarb and didn't even touch it. I also noticed while they are walking the area from their run to the garden where alot of the buttercup is they just nibble around it. So I firmly believe they have an innate intelligence about what they can eat and what they can't; which is one less thing I have to worry about.

Mine have been eating pink foam board...on more than one occasion. Then I finally took care of the problem and prevented their access to it. They aren't that good at picking out what is good for them!

 

[Ridgerunner]

They are pretty good at avoiding natural things that will harm them. But you are right, some of the manmade stuff can cause problems.