Toxic, Tolerable, or Treat?

[Tala]

If clover is toxic then all my chickens will be dead come next spring.
Guess we'll find out, huh??

In the spring, while the Burmuda grass is still kinda dormant, my entire back yard where the flock ranges is covered over in several kinds of clover that dies back once it becomes too hot for it.
I used "weed and feed" twice in the past and couldn't tell much difference in the amount of clover, so now I just let the chickens do the weeding for me chemical-free.

 

[Imp]

Any leftover citrus or salty items go to my chickens. It's not often. I don't think it's been a problem.

Imp

 

[Lil Chickie Mama]

LOL, when we planted our lawn we just had hard packed clay dirt so we amended it with compost and rice hulls before we seeded it. Now we have more rice growing than grass, but it still looks like grass so we don't mind. When I started letting my chickens out to free range they eventually found the rice plants and they eat and scratch around in that instead of the grass. Maybe it's just in addition to the grass, but it seems they leave the grass alone. Anyway, now there's grass growing in and around their run but they leave it alone to go find the rice-grass.

Works for me!

 

[daisy_dukers]

Mine ate a whole bag of seasoned sunflowerseeds....

25 birds....

That was about 4 weeks ago..

They are all still kicking and I got 16eggs yesterday from them and they were born June2nd......

 

[Mrs.Puff]

i've heard that citrus just makes their eggs taste kinda funny, especially the peels. I don't think chickens really like it anyway.

I've read that they shouldn't eat pokeberries, but I actually gave them some on purpose once before I read that and nobody croaked. The robins eat the pokeberries all the time.

 

[Tala]

Mrs.Puff :

I've read that they shouldn't eat pokeberries, but I actually gave them some on purpose once before I read that and nobody croaked. The robins eat the pokeberries all the time.

Mine tried them, and then left them alone. I guess they knew that they were bad for them, or maybe they just taste bad. I dunno.​

 

[1birdlady]

We give our 4 BR's the leftovers from our parrot, including citrus. It's the next to last thing they eat from his dish...sweet potato being the very last. (?)

No ill effects at all, and we're getting usually 3 eggs a day....we still have one free loader who's not maturing as quickly as the other 3.

 

[pixie74943]

I think citrus is bad because Citrus is supposed to erode calcium (its bad for your teeth) and can result in weak shells.

But them again, Avacado is supposed to contain a substance that can cause heart attacks, your not even supposed to use avacado branches as perches for birds cause their is enough of said substance to kill a bird. Which I found out AFTER feeding the hens avacado for a month. They used to love it