whole olives?

[Scrambled Egg]

 

[TransitionArizona]

Reviving an old thread here.... I just returned from CA for Xmas where my Grammy's olive tree was dropping olives by the wheel barrow full. So I loaded several trash bags full in my van and hauled them back to Prescott, AZ. I figured I would try them as chicken food and failing all else, just compost them.

So today I threw a few handfuls into the run. At first they fought over them, but then didn't quite know what to do with them. Eventually, they started pecking at some and were able to tear them up and eat them.

My chickens left the pits behind (which are about the size of an elongated large corn kernel). As of tonight, many of the olives are still lying around the run. Tomorrow I will see if they eat some more. I guess I will keep feeding them these olives in small doses and see if I notice any ill effects. Sure hate to waste all that good food if they will eat them. These are sort of a dark purplish color olive.

Scott

 

[Derbypunk]

Very glad to see this question! I'm constructing my coop and it's under my ancient olive tree that also dumps zillions of olives. I had concerns as well! Too bad for my chickens though, no fruit fly infestation. My mom and a teammate of mine cure them though!

 

[nok13]

I CANNOT , POSSIBLY CANNOT, FATHOM WHY U ARE ALL THRWOING AWAY OLIVES. U ARE WASTING GOOD FOOD.!!!
we are surrounded by olive trees, i am allergic to their pollen but in israel, what else would we grow on land that has not much use for other agriculture other then vineyards? olive trees and almond trees.

so we have a huge olive tree that cause the whole apartment building to be built not in line with the others becasue here, u are not allowed to cut down olive trees , only replant, which costs $$$$$$$$$...

so, i have my coop under our olive tree also... we collect the olives and either do them in brine , bsh them with a hammer and do brine, lemon and dill, or, layer them in rock salt....
either way, there is no such thing as an olive tree that does not have someone coming to collect the olives from it... even in picnic ares that have ancient olive trees; anyone can come and pick the olives. and my chickens ignore them. however , our dogs eat them, and often throw up afterwards as olives are semi toxic when eaten raw... (they also dont taste good)...
we have syrian olives and all sorts of =other varieties here: some are from older vilalges that wre here previously, and some are from newer younger plantations that we planted for the past 30 years; also the arab villages close by also have their older plantations (pass from father to son)...

 

[silkiechicken]

SO this is an ancient thread.

However... as to address why people throw away olives.... it's all demographics and what is valuable in one's culture. There are cultures which feed rats, there are cultures who keep cows sacred, there are cultures who would kill for a meal in general.... then there are cultures which on average throw away near a quarter of the food they buy because it goes bad before they eat it.

 

[nok13]

may be an old thread but somebody resurrected it; and olives dont spoil. thats the beauty of it all; but u are right some cultures throw away a lot of food... it seems that americans tend to throw away a lot of stuff including food... anything from sweatbreads (the innards of chickens and cows, like pancreas, gall bladders etc) to leaves and stems of things , to , well, olives... a shame...
not only that, olives are really healthy too... i cant even imagine eating an olive from a can though.... blech...its actually fun to process olives: we bang them with a hammer and then put thme in saline.. so it gets all our agressions out *you can imagine that the olives are people that annoy you, and bang!. ......

 

[lovenati]

Did anyone actually ever answer this question? I heard on the Ted talk about the guy in Spain who feeds all lives to his ducks. He actually has an olive Orchard and instead of selling all lives he lets the ducks free range and the olives which makes a beautiful foie gras without having to gavoche.

Question is can chickens eat them as well?

 

[Cathy R.]

Our chicken coop is under a big olive tree, which drops zillions and zillions of olives on the ground nearby. The chickens yard is covered, but lots of the fruit rolls into the coop. The chickens are crazy about the olives and gulp them down, pit and all. Pit and all!

Now, these are uncured olives, so I'm not worried about salt content, but it strikes me as somewhat dangerous for them to be eating olive pits. Won't they get caught somewhere in their gullets? And yet, they've been eating them for months with no apparent ill-effect.

Is it normal for chickens to eat such large seeds without hurting their digestive systems? Should we sweep the olives up and make the coop a no-olive zone? (Seems a shame, since a handful of olives seems to be just about the chickens' favorite treat.)

Any advice is much appreciated,
-Elizabeth

I lost my first 2 hens to eating olives. The necropsy revealed 33 pits in one, which blocked her intestines. They lost weight and were only eating grass and grit at the end. I only have one olive tree and it is a distance from the chicken's yard but I do let them out in mine to forage. I raked up and picked up olives so had no idea that they were eating them. Now during the season I put a net underneath the Olive tree and empty it regularly and am much more vigilant about picking up olives.