Chicken boarders

[PoachedPlease]

Help, i desperately need some real advice on lily of the valley and I'm hoping all your wealth of experience will cheer me up... Lilly of the Valley is like a weed in our garden and although I am trying to dig out as much as possible, some escapes and the chickens absolutely love the stuff grazing it down to the ground so I can't find it anymore. Seriously, they prefer it to the 'healthy' dandelions and chickweed that run amok. hmm, not that me garden is weedy or anything Dont the birds know whats good for them? But It is on the toxic plant list here and the list of plants toxic to poultry just gets longer at every website I visit and some are just ridiculous (grapes??).

 

The problem withe net, as great as it can be, is that people copy and paste to the extent that you lost touch of the original evidence based data. I have seen one website that says its poisonous to mammals but not chickens ..which would stop me worrying...but who to believe?

 

Has anyone here got lily of the valley loving chickens?.

 

Or even better dOes anyone know where to reference a real rather than virtual reference book that can be relied on?

Many thanks!!

[Olly]

I could be proved wrong on this, but ... I've been on this forum for six years and I have never come across a case of anyone's hens being poisoned by ordinary garden plants. They seem to be remarkably good at knowing what is, or isn't, edible and even when they eat stuff which is supposed to be poisonous (like rhubarb) it has never done mine any harm.

 

I think that if they could only have access to one plant alone - or if you fed it to them in large quantities - then it could be risky, but they are usually grazing on all sorts of things.

 

I didn't know that lily-of-the-valley were on the 'dangerous' list. Quite honestly there are things in my garden that I didn't even know were there until the hens uncovered them! I wouldn't worry too much.

[Chortle Chook]

I'd second what Olly says - chickens, unlike dogs, seem very adept at not eating poisonous plants and I admit to having quite a few of them, like euphorbia and daphne. I did have lilly of the valley but my chickens have eaten it all up

[jasperaliceuk]

So far, they have't touched my Lily of the Valley but the rhubarb is shredded, and not only that but I found them chomping the Hostas down to stumps!

 

Sue

[PoachedPlease]

Excellent! It sounds like I won't ever need to waste time digging these v. Annoying weeds up. The chickens do completely ignore the garlic bulbs growing in the veg patch, so they must know what they are doing.

 

Thanks a lot guys. No doubt I will find something else chickens to obsess about instead...

 

Xx

[Snowyhen]

Will concur with Shabby Chick over Lilly of the Valley. Mum is not happy with our lot

[Chortle Chook]

So far, they have't touched my Lily of the Valley but the rhubarb is shredded, and not only that but I found them chomping the Hostas down to stumps!

Sue

I had hostas one year and the chickens left them all alone so I got lots of them. Next year they developed a taste for them. This year they are not bothered with them again so a few previous stumps are sprouting. Nothing as contrary as chickens I think they have a priority list and when they have finished their favourites they make do with other things