Wild Tree Tobacco Safety?

tree_tyger

Chirping
Apr 4, 2021
38
56
51
Simi Valley, California
I am interested if anyone else has Tobacco Trees in their chicken coop/run area. I understand they are poisonous and invasive in our area (So. Cal); however, I have also read that you do not need to worry about hens eating poisonous plants as they will not eat enough of anything that is bad for them to make them sick. This tobacco tree is growing in the chicken run. The other plants are quite mature and trimmed to be tree-like (8+ft). The one pictured is the only one that has foliage at "pullet" level. The girls will move into their big girl coop/run in a few weeks, and I am wondering if we need to trim this down. Note: the previous owners had as many as 32 chickens in this same area, so I am assuming the tobacco did not pose a problem for the former hens. .
 

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It is poisonous if ingested. But the thing about many poisonous plants and chickens, as well as other animals, is they appear to know to stay away from it.

If I had it in my run, though, I would get rid of it. The one chicken that is your favorite might be dumb enough to nibble the leaves. I wouldn't want to chance it.
 
It is poisonous if ingested. But the thing about many poisonous plants and chickens, as well as other animals, is they appear to know to stay away from it.

If I had it in my run, though, I would get rid of it. The one chicken that is your favorite might be dumb enough to nibble the leaves. I wouldn't want to chance it.
Thanks for weighing in. We like that the foliage can provide some shade for the chickens, so I suppose, to be safe, we will just cut off the leaves below and train it into more of a "tree".
 

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