toxic plants list

[ladybuglives]

Has anyone else freaked when checking out the link on the treats page for toxic plants? You go to this site that lists plants that are in abundance in my yard like buttercup, sheep sorrel, garlic, onions, amaranth, brassicas, chickweed etc. I mean, how does anyone ever let the chickens free range???? In a wet area like Northern California, buttercup abounds! There's no way I can get rid of it all. I'm hoping someone will write back who also has buttercup in their yard and has some info on this... I did cover the patch of buttercup in their pen with a sandbox and plan on pulling out the sheep sorrel today but yikes! I want to let my girls free range when they're old enough...

 

[Alice EG]

Garlic? Onions? Bad for chickens? That's news to me. I thought garlic was good for 'em.

 

[gettinaclue]

This is news to me. Onions garlic?

Wow. I just read on here the other day that people are feeding their chickens onions.

 

[ladybuglives]

Check out the link on the treats page https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2593-Treats_Chart

You have to scroll down. I am not saying that I think these things are bad for them but they are listed on the poultry webpage. I am a real newbie soooo -- clueless....

 

[HHandbasket]

From what I have read in one of the books I picked up on chickenkeeping, it is recommended to not feed onions, garlic, or chives to laying hens as it will make their eggs taste funny--oniony, not in a good way. I don't know that it's necessarily harmful to the chickens themselves, just makes the eggs taste bad.

 

[amandarey20]

In the little yard my chickens will be in there is honeysuckle plants all over. Is that toxic to them? The vines went crazy and grew all over the fence.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Unless they were sprayed with something poisonous then I've never known a chicken to become ill or die from eating a plant. Toxic plants generally taste bad.

Now moldy feed, toxic seeds in their feed, and other such things are different, but I've never known a bird to poison itself from eating a toxic plant.