cam1 Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 Hi have looked on here about chickens eating rhubarb to find its poisonous(as i suspected knowing that the leaves are poisonous). We let the chooks out for the first time on saturday. A bit longer on sun and they have been out for a bit the last 2 late afternoons they seem to be enjoying it look healthy are quite friendly. We do have the old yellowy orange soft runny poo which has happened on and off since they arrived but i am having to keep removing them from the rhubarb but they keep trying to return will it make them really ill? should i dig it up ? i cant stand over them all the time? Dont want them to be poorly thanks everyone cam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E4eggs Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 I had a large pot of rhubarb on my patio. I too was worried as knew it was poisonous. The girls have eaten all the leaves and some of the stalks. They are all still in the best of health, but I have now moved pot with the rhubarb remnants so will hopefully have some late rhubarb, or will have better luck with it next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abbey Road Girl Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 Haven't been able to post for some time, but just wanted to say that my hens ate all my ivy, also supposed to be poisonous. From info on here, I thought that they would avoid anything poisonous so didn't worry. All of a sudden I saw that the ivy (like a certain parrot) had ceased to exist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cam1 Posted August 19, 2008 Author Share Posted August 19, 2008 Thanx that is a bit more reassuring in the back of my mind i was thinking that they should just know if it is bad for them. The rhubarb has been there 4 years since well before we moved here so feel a bit bad about digging it up. It is just to the side and back of the eglu and they seem to want to eat it i keep chasing them off! cam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abbey Road Girl Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 Haven't been able to post for some time, but just wanted to say that my hens ate all my ivy, also supposed to be poisonous. From info on here, I thought that they would avoid anything poisonous so didn't worry. All of a sudden I saw that the ivy (like a certain parrot) had ceased to exist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jomaxsmith Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 The expert at our local poultry centre has a theory that if a chicken is well fed then a small amount of foodstuffs that are supposed to be toxic will cause no harm. If your chooks ate only rhubarb leaves or you didn't feed them additional mash or pellets and they foraged for all their food then it might be different Jo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GEB Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 Don't worry, mine sometimes eat the leaves of my rhubarb and don't appear to get any ill effects. My rhubarb is huge so don't mind a bit of damage, so I just leave them to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deejmum Posted August 20, 2008 Share Posted August 20, 2008 Ours are always eating rhubarb leaves.We tried to fence it off but they found the way in. They are absolutely fine. PS we got five new chooks yesterday!! Will post pics soon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jools+6 Posted August 21, 2008 Share Posted August 21, 2008 ours are scoffing all our ivy and dont seem to have any ill effects at all . mind as it's the ivy holding up that lenghth of fence i might get flat chooks one of these days !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poplars Posted August 21, 2008 Share Posted August 21, 2008 My theory is that if it makes them ill, they won't be stupid enough to eat it, then you realise you are talking about chickens and I wasn't so sure... But surely when they are in the wild they don't have a human standing over them to stop them eating stuff? Eve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkysmum Posted August 21, 2008 Share Posted August 21, 2008 Hi our girls took a liking to rhubarb too. We decided to play safe and put netting round it. They ignore it now.Allisonx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
