Wild berries in yard...safe for my chickens?

[Kotiya]

A lot of my 5 acre yard is wild, and there are bushes with berries. I make sure my human kids don't eat them, but can't stop the free ranging chickens. Will the chicks naturally eat only what it safe? If I pulled a high branch down for them will this be a treat or a poison?

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you could post a picture of the berries, a general one of the bush so we can see the shape, and a close up of the leaf and bark, we may be able to help you.

Most free range chickens do fine and you probably have nothing to wory about, especially if you see othe birds eating these berries, but I always feel better knowing.

As far as chickens automatically knowing what is good for them, they will eat styrofoam. I kinda think chickens helped originate the meaning for the term birdbrain.

 

[Big Chicken Little]

Quote:

Don't rely on a chicken to choose its meal wisely!

 

[NYREDS]

Knowing what the berries are will make it possible to actually answer the question.

 

[cybercat]

Do not worry about the berries. Mine free range on our 5 acres and eat alot what is on the toxic lists. Not one has died from it. Heck mine even ate painted grass and the paint off the coop without problems. There system is much differnet than most critters as toxins pass thru them with out harming them.

 

[ozark hen]

We live in the middle of 82 acres, chickens free range and never have gotten into anything that harmed them.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Ridge runner is full of good answers today and saving me alot of typing!

My farm is full of alot of things that fall under the heading of berry. We'd need to see the bush and the berry.
However, the styrofoam insulation on the bottom of their coop door no longer exists.

 

[Tala]

We have polk salad growing in our yard, and the chickens tasted some and seemed to know not to eat the berries.

 

[BlackBart]

Quote:
I agree with cybercat.
In 30 years of having free range chickens they have eaten allot of the things that are supposed to be bad for them..
They seem to know, by instinct, what not to eat, although when painting the chicken house red the Sumatras had red beaks for awhile. They are still alive.

 

[Chickn chick 46]

I have what I call 'wild lily of the valley' growing in some of the wooded area of my yard, in the summer they have red berries that my hens can't seem to get enough of. Never seemed to bother them.

If they are freeranging there really isn't much you can do to control what they eat