What? Chickens can't eat clover?

[aggiemae]

My chicks are less than 2 months old and in a coop with a small run. Twice I've given them a little freshly picked clover, which they devoured, and both times they got terrible diarrhea. I won't give it to them again, I'll tell you that.

Giving greens to adult hens that don't get then consistently could cause loose poops.and so can clippings that have been treated with chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides. Either situation would likely be worse for chicks.

 

[aggiemae]

I dont want the birds on my acreage next door, right now wheat, later beans, I have about 1/2 to 3/4 acre lot that is basically crab grass, thought od sowing wildflowers on it, then letting them loose on it when the bugs come to town, otherwise, may fence in a 50x50 run to graze down the crab grass..... any other ideas what to sow on this patch of land

After the food is harvested I grow a cover crop of clover, lupine and poppies in our raised beds for the chickens and the three mature plants on the side of the house where the chickens winter are (Pink) oliander and rodidendroms. We used to have rubarb there but the chickens ate it to death.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

A lot of what you read about food today is political mumbo jumbo or junk science, often cooked up late at night and fueled by a purple haze brought on by too many Hershey bars and Ding Dongs.

Yes buckeyes are poisonous, at least to honey bees, cows or other grazing animals and maybe to us humans as well. But then again good old fashion water, or H2O is a deadly poison. If you drink too much water in too short a time you will dilute your electrolytes to the point that your heart stops beating because the electrical signals can't travel over your nerves to trigger a heart beat. The danger all poison poises is in the dosage, never or almost never in the nature of the food consumed.

I wish to remind everyone that just because something is poisonous to us humans or to other mammals doesn't make it poisonous to a chicken and the opposite is also true. One good example of this is nux vomica which is an organic source of the poison strychnine, but when consumed by a chicken it acts like a tonic. One other example is pyrethrum which can be extracted from any flower in the mum family like the marigold. It repels and kills insects and other invertebrates but it is mostly benign to animals with a backbone.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away except when you eat enough apples to poison yourself with organic arsenic. Then there is selenium, a heavy metal once considered a deadly poison but that is now included in your children's daily mineral and vitamin supplement. I also assume that denatured “hemp” seed is still sold by pet stores to boost the appetite of sick birds.

To get back to the subject of this thread the problem with eating clover is with the organic cyanide or prussic acid that it contains. The buzz word as always is, moderation in everything, and everything in moderation.

 

[Zone3Dakota]

Hi all,

The USDA has an article on white and yellow sweet clover that explains a lot. I've learned more about clover in this one read, than I've ever known before. check it out. (I'm new...don't know if it's okay to post links, but is easy to find with a quick search)

When viewing our property right now, about a fourth of the land area looks bright yellow with naturalized sweet clover, so after reading this thread, thought that I should check out the 'science' of what my birds will be into( IF I can freerange with all the predators.)

There is a bunch of info there. What might work in one situation, may not work in another. But for my situation, with all the wild birds surviving just fine (loads of pheasant, sharp-tails, ducks, geese) the free-ranging should work. Gets more complicated with the sweetclover hay or in areas that have mold issues. There are even certain 'breeds' of sweet clover that are 'low toxin' and some that are higher.

Hope this helps. It is definitely worth the time that it takes to read the article.

 

[boobug]

I give mine clover. The ducks too.

 

[qrb912]

Mine are crushing the clover in my yard. LOL They are the best weed and pest control ever.

 

[Chris09]

Hi all,

The USDA has an article on white and yellow sweet clover that explains a lot. I've learned more about clover in this one read, than I've ever known before. check it out. (I'm new...don't know if it's okay to post links, but is easy to find with a quick search)

When viewing our property right now, about a fourth of the land area looks bright yellow with naturalized sweet clover, so after reading this thread, thought that I should check out the 'science' of what my birds will be into( IF I can freerange with all the predators.)

There is a bunch of info there. What might work in one situation, may not work in another. But for my situation, with all the wild birds surviving just fine (loads of pheasant, sharp-tails, ducks, geese) the free-ranging should work. Gets more complicated with the sweetclover hay or in areas that have mold issues. There are even certain 'breeds' of sweet clover that are 'low toxin' and some that are higher.

Hope this helps. It is definitely worth the time that it takes to read the article.

Post the link, It's a USDA link.

 

[Zone3Dakota]

http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_PLANTMATERIALS/publications/idpmcpg10359.pdf is the sweetclover link.
thanks!

 

[SweetSilver]

Mine are crushing the clover in my yard. LOL They are the best weed and pest control ever.

The clover referred to is a tall perennial, sometimes taller than your head (well, my head anyway

) not the creeping groundcover that we all have in our lawns. Sweet clover is called "sweet" because it has a high quantity of the compound in question. We are not talking about all clover here.

 

[Zone3Dakota]

sorry, should I delete the link?