Will chickens eat leaves?

[CATRAY44]

Mine eat leaves like crazy- they are little Hoover vacuums!

 

[Rhett&SarahsMom]

Quote:
mine too. I rake them up and then toss them into the run.
They have been loving life the last few days, what with all the pumpkim inards and leaves.Happy little chooks.

 

[DDRanch]

Leaves provide a lot of entertainment for my girls. I have pine trees, maple, euclaylptus, and orchard trees. My hens also have access to an ornamental plum. I don't see them eat the leaves, but love to forage through for bugs and then dust when the leaves dry up. The trees also provide, of course, great shade in the summer and hawk cover all year round. "leaf" the trees, your chickens will be fine.

Anne

 

[Chez Poulet]

Good info on the leaves everyone.

I have tons of big leaf maple trees around and have freshly fallen leaves all over the place. My girls don't like to eat them because I've mixed them in with fresh cut grass clippings and they're ignored.

I am having a mud problem (nothing worse than any other north westerner would be having) and I was thinking about putting a layer of leaves down, then some straw.

 

[kmom246]

I have a young orchard with apple, nectarine and cherry trees. When the trees still had green leaves on them, the chickens jumped up and stripped and ate all the apple leaves they could reach. A few liked the fresh nectarine leaves, but by and large, they left the nectarine leaves alone. Beyond their initial samplings, they did not touch the cherry tree leaves. They haven't eaten any of the leaves that have fallen, although, like many chickens earlier in this thread, they have a great time hunting through and playing in them.

 

[curliet]

My chickens love scratching thru the leaves as well, but I had never noticed them eating any. Until a few days ago, when one of them starting picking up a few along the fence line i the back yard. There is a mulberry tree there, and those were the leaves she was eating. she didn't eat many, amd was the only chicken that seemed curious about them. I haven't noticed that she's gone back for mre tho. I wonder if those leaves might taste slightly fruity oe something.

 

[PAJerry]

We have tons of oak leaves and I threw a lot into the run to help keep the mud down, and it works just fine. The girls don't eat them, but love digging through them looking for bugs and stuff to eat.

 

[allaboutdemchicks]

Short answer: only the leaves that you don't want them to. Example: free ranging time means a meal of my daylilies, hostas, fire spike (odontonema), ferns, and now they found my bird of paradise.

un

 

[Grayfeather22]

I have a young orchard with apple, nectarine and cherry trees. When the trees still had green leaves on them, the chickens jumped up and stripped and ate all the apple leaves they could reach. A few liked the fresh nectarine leaves, but by and large, they left the nectarine leaves alone. Beyond their initial samplings, they did not touch the cherry tree leaves. They haven't eaten any of the leaves that have fallen, although, like many chickens earlier in this thread, they have a great time hunting through and playing in them.

Hi would you know if apple leaves are toxic to chickens? Specifically paradise apple tree( malus pumilla)?

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Mine get barrels and barrels of fall leaves, which become run compost material to be scratched through. They don’t eat those.

My flock will pick at green maple leaves if I cut them a branch, or strip a fresh cut white pine branch down pretty well.