Which marigolds to plant for chickens to eat?

[SBChickenLady]

Hi all! I’ve read various places that marigold flowers are good for chickens to eat with health benefits. However, I’ve seen certain articles that specify that there are species of marigolds that are bad. Does anyone hear give marigold petals to their chickens as a nutritious treat and if so, which type do you use/grow? Thanks! (Photo with puppy who likes to share treats with the chickens too

 

[nuthatched]

They don't have much benefits besides dying the egg yolks darker.

 

[SBChickenLady]

They don't have much benefits besides dying the egg yolks darker.

Understood, but looking for a chicken friendly flower to add to the garden for color in the yard as well, so always seeking dual purpose items, thanks!

 

[Brooks_]

Understood, but looking for a chicken friendly flower to add to the garden for color in the yard as well, so always seeking dual purpose items, thanks!

Calendula, in that case.

 

[SBChickenLady]

Calendula, in that case.

Cool, thank you!

 

[Perris]

This has a lot of the old herbal lore about edible marigold (Calendula)
https://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/m/marigo16.html

The 'bad' type you've read about is probably Tagetes, which is also called marigold, confusingly.

I have pot marigolds in the garden and my chickens just ignore them. (Which incidentally makes them another flowering plant that is perfectly fine in a garden with free ranging chickens.) Free ranging birds get plenty of carotene from fresh grass. Feed manufacturers add dried marigold petals as a (poor) substitute for the fresh greens that a free ranging bird gets to try to make confined hens' egg yolks look the same colour as free ranging hens' egg yolks. But I don't think the birds will eat them unless there's nothing better on offer.

 

[SDRox]

Understood, but looking for a chicken friendly flower to add to the garden for color in the yard as well, so always seeking dual purpose items, thanks!

Marigolds impart antioxidant pigments such as lutein and zeaxanthin to the egg yolks! These pigments are brilliant yellow-orange, and lutein especially is even somewhat fluorescent, but this does not diminish the quality of the eggs. It improves them tremendously!! Lutein and zeaxanthin are very beneficial antioxidants and especially important for our eye health!!

 

[Altairsky]

My chickens eat bellis perennis (Dasy) flowers. Not much else. They are more interested in the herbs seeds. Poppy seeds, grass seeds, silence vulgaris seeds, galium verum seeds.