Turkeys ate Polk Salad! :o Poisonous?

[hennypenny99]

My silly young turkeys ate polk salad yesterday. I let them out of their coop to free range and have some greens and found them tearing into polk salad. Well for humans we can eat polk salad but it has to be specially prepared or it is poisonous. They seem fine today. My hen was chowing down on my canas too. I also have a black walnut tree in my yard very close to their coop and there is poison ivy growing on it. Are there any plants I should really worry about? My little flock eats everything!

 

[saladin]

It's actually Poke Salad though in the South we say 'polk.'

When young the poke should not be a problem as that is when we eat it as well: though cooking rids the plant of poison. I feed you poke plants to my chickens all the time in the spring; which is the only time they will eat it.

 

[hennyannie]

In the summer my horse comes home with purple around his mouth and nose, so I assume he is eating it. Which makes no sense because we have grass a plenty.

 

[hennypenny99]

Thanks, Good to know! I wasn't sure if it was Poke or Polk but we pronounce it Polk. It hasn't seemed to hurt them. I have a theory... if a chicken eats poison ivy and you eat their eggs do you build up an immunity to poison ivy? Hmmmm don't think I want to test that one out. LOL!

 

[dutchhollow]

It is poke weed, when I read the title I thought they actually ate salad you made! As the others said, shouldn't bother them, my goats eat it all the time.

 

[marksouth]

Nope, wrong dutchhollow, where we live it's poke salad.Just want to make sure the incorrect info in an earlier post doesn't get someone poisoned. Cooking does not remove the toxin. Only the young immature plant is nontoxic and it takes an experienced eye. So best advice to humans, don't eat.

 

[saladin]

Phytolaccatoxin and phytolaccigenin are present in many species which are poisonous to mammals if not cooked properly.

 

[tniron]

Will poultry eat poison ivy/oak? Is so mine will have a feast in my woods.