What? Chickens can't eat clover?

[americanvalkyrie]

Does anyone know if it's ok to put my new pullets out in this pasture to free range after it has been harvested of soybeans and wild turkeys hang out in it all day long? This is a picture of the coop we're building and we get our new chicks in 3 days.

But I have read a lot about people being careful about introducing new hens to their existing flocks so as to not bring in a disease etc. But how about my bringing my new chickens to an existing field of turkey cooties and poopies?

The picture is of our coop we are building and you can see very well how the turkeys are enjoying all around it. Leaving their
marks no doubt. lol. Thank you. Kim

I read an article warning about putting turkeys with chickens. But the warning was that the turkeys are susceptible to diseases that may not harm chickens, though the other way around seemed fairly safe.

But then... I read it in the same magazine as my "toxic foods" article.

 

[americanvalkyrie]

americanvalkyrie, we're glad our chooks have access to `high clover'. Though the range in May seems `painted' as `romantic pastoralist', it is anything but. The GSL at the far left had 4 stitches in her R flank from a Red Fox grab, two days before (down in the swale under those Bald Cypress). There is a Remington Nylon 66, leaning against another one of those scraggly Wild Plums, just out of the frame (we retired 18 Red Fox that year - `07). All but two of the chooks in that shot are still alive as nothing that eats poultry exits the property.
We have every sort of toxic annual/perennial cultivated in an ungulate rat filled `niche' (don't have to hunt deer - just walk out and beat them to death with an aluminum baseball bat). Vinca/Datura(s)/Wisteria/Salvias/Water Hemlock/Castor Beans/Holly/etc. My bonsai Poison Oak, in a bucket, hasn't been pulled out of the dirt - yet. Only injuries from plants have been mechanical. Roo landed on an Osage Orange thorn (right through foot) and developed Bumble Foot. Keep the Gooseberry/Multifloral Rose/Green brier cut back/Osage Orange/Honey Locust trunks cleared of thorns.
The chooks and turks ignore all the `deer proofing' (6 years and no `toxification' of the flocks). Other than the turkey hens glomming down Wild Chives until they stink of onions (if they'd eat a few bites of one of the sages along with it they'd reek of stuffing - then into the oven

)
Both the turks and chooks are extremely wary of anything new (eat canned peaches, but growl at a whole one tossed in run). So, when Cass sat her Fuchsia Princess plants out on the back deck, for the summer, she figured the chooks would eat any bugs off of it and otherwise ignore it.

However, after a tentative bite by the roo, the chooks fell to it and ate several leaves/little stems, each (no flowers). How did they know this was not only safe, but tasty? Something like it etched in their Jungle Fowl hard wiring?
We'd never introduce an `unknown' to the flocks in an enclosed run (like humans - `man, I was just so bored I started shooting up...') as they might well poison themselves by `mindless' pecking. Out on the range they are pretty picky eaters, here.

Yet another reminder to be thankful for what we have in life. I have a solid wood-fenced yard, on rented property, in a climate that gets almost no rainfall. Often I lament that when it comes to my gardens. BUT... about the only bugs we deal with are earwigs, aphids, and grasshoppers. And about the only predator I need to worry about is the raccoons that come out of the sewers and climb my fence. And my pyrenese/german shepard is wonderful for dealing with them.

 

[chloezoebob101]

my chickens love clover, no side effects

 

[chloezoebob101]

those ppl that write that don't want your chickens to be healthy.. let me rephrase that- those ppl want you to buy the gmo feed, and not the stuff they are supposed to eat..

 

[angusshangus]

Did anyone else notice hemp is on the list??? What if it's for medicinal use and the chicken as a note from her doctor? ;-)

 

[chloezoebob101]

i didn't read through it

 

[yinepu]

Maybe the the 4 leaf clovers that cause problems..

has to be the 4 leaf clover.. they start on that.. think they are now lucky.. run off to the casinos and gamble away their life savings on slot machines and alcohol...

 

[yinepu]

last year I planted tomato and pepper plants in my garden.. my ducks and chickens ate the plants down to the ground.. said they were delicious... didn't even leave twigs..

so I fenced it off and planted more.. then the neighbor's bull came over, trampled the fence as he did his not so graceful leap over (through) it... he also decided that tomato and pepper plants were yummy....



no one died.. except for the tomato plants and the pepper plants... and my fence... my wallet wasn't very happy either...

 

[StarLover21]

Mine have eaten three things on that list...clover, ground ivy, and st. johns wort. All are fine...

 

[naturalfeddogs]

Mine love clover and eat some everyday in the summer. All have been fine.