With the better weather my girls are allowed to Rome around the garden, under supervision of course, but I have a wide variety of trees and shrubs, they are particularly fond of eating the leaves on my plum tree and don't seem to have come to any harm. Are there any shrubs, trees or plants that I should remove for safety?
Safe Grazing
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dinosaw
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In an average garden probably half of the plants you come across are poisonous to one degree or another, some of them deadly. The good news is that a lot of it tastes horrible and chickens have been around for a long time and are not as daft as some of the ruminants when it comes to eating stuff that is harmful to them. For example, ivy, buttercups, laurel, rhubarb, azaleas, rhodedendrum, box and hydrangea are all poisonous when eaten, azaleas and rhodedendrum can be deadly in small doses others have a cumulative effect like say buttercup which burns and upsets the stomach. I have had all of these and apart from having a bit of a nibble at some box and deciding they didn't like it the chickens ignored everything I've just listed. If you really want to be thoroughly on the safe side do a search on poisonous plants for chickens, there are plenty of lists out there and then remove the deadly ones, I wouldn't worry about it too much, as long as they have food available they are unlikely to eat the harmful stuff.
chrismahon
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I do know Laburnum is very poisonous, as are rhubarb leaves and read about ivy being bad as well. In the Dordogne our Wyandottes quickly stripped all the grass and moss from their enclosure and then set about eating all the ivy and anything else green as well, like tree leaves that fell. None of them were the slightest bit off colour, although the poos were rather green. The Wyandottes now have a fir tree in their enclosure and they stand on top of the nest box and jump up to eat the fresh shoots. They are still laying well and are again not the slightest bit ill. I suspect some of the poisonous lists contain local varieties, so a list in America would be different to one in England and it is worth checking the source of your information and consulting Wikipedia perhaps?
I understood it was the seeds of laburnum that were poisonous rather than the whole thing? We have one and the chickens are fine. Similarly the pips of apples contain cyanide, yet our chickens gorge on fallen apples in the autumn. We have loads of ivy and used to have deadly nightshade. As Dinosaw says, they are more intelligent than given credit for.
Hi we are struggling. 3 weeks ago one of our hens got sick quite suddenly and died. She was 4. Her poo was yellow and runny. We were advised that it was worms. I wasn't convinced but at the same time it seemed possible. 3 weeks later ginger who is 1 year old is very sick with the same symptoms and we are told she is unlikely to make it. She was wormed immediately after dotty died. Again she seems to have gone down hill very fast. Yesterday she was unwell but I still couldn't catch her and today very little reaction. We can't think of anything that we have done that is different but it seems too much of a coincidence. We have been looking at poisonous plants and we have some of them in the garden including a large rhododendron. We have had chickens now for 4 years without trouble until now. We have removed our last chicken to the farm nearby until we know what is going on but I am thinking we can't have any more. As far as we know nothing has changed. Any thoughts? It isn't practical to remove all the plants that are potentially poisonous as some are very large.
Any help thoughts would be really welcome. We are a bit shell shocked and don't want to be the cause of more dying and to be honest are now not sure what to do.
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Any help thoughts would be really welcome. We are a bit shell shocked and don't want to be the cause of more dying and to be honest are now not sure what to do.
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dinosaw
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I would say that if the chickens have been in your garden for 4 years without getting poisoned it is unlikely that it is due to them being poisoned by your plants now.The yellow runny poo can be a side effect of worms, you would also expect to see your birds losing condition and weight and perhaps stopping laying, I would expect the downturn to be a bit more gradual but then chickens do hide illness very well. It could also be a virus or an infection, always hard to tell, who told you it was worms and had you been worming them regularly? I wouldn't let this put you off, there is always a workaround solution if you are worried about plants in your garden, just net off where you don't want them going.
Hi Daphne, and welcome to the forum. I'm sorry your chickens are giving you so much worry and distress at the moment. I agree with Dinosaw that an established flock living where they've been OK for 4 years are unlikely to become poisoned, assuming you haven't recently planted anything that might cause it and haven't used any poisons such as slug pellets, rat poison or weedkiller where they might eat it.
Could you just confirm what preparation you used when you last wormed them, and how frequently they've been wormed before that?
Could you just confirm what preparation you used when you last wormed them, and how frequently they've been wormed before that?
Hello
Thank you so much for your replies. Ginger died this afternoon. Can't believe it. I couldn't catch her yesterday.
We have always added vermex to their feed and did the medicated stuff about 6 months ago and then 3 weeks ago. Neither of the girls lost condition and indeed looked very healthy. Ginger's comb went a bit purple and crinkly although it was always a bit purple from the outset. We concluded that was how it should be and indeed she was a feisty madam full of energy.
one change which occurs to us is that we have more recently been having pheasants and partridges helping themselves to the feed. Could they pass any virus over? They have looked very healthy but could this be a risk?
We haven't put down any pellets etc so it can't be that.
We are waiting to see if bashful gets sick. Dotty who died 3 weeks ago was never a good egg layer but strangely during April and May we had the most eggs ofI the whole 4 years. Ginger was a good layer and had stopped during the last 2 weeks. Horridly we have been away so we feel even worse.
Maybe it is worms and we are learning a tough lesson.
Thank you so much for your replies. Ginger died this afternoon. Can't believe it. I couldn't catch her yesterday.
We have always added vermex to their feed and did the medicated stuff about 6 months ago and then 3 weeks ago. Neither of the girls lost condition and indeed looked very healthy. Ginger's comb went a bit purple and crinkly although it was always a bit purple from the outset. We concluded that was how it should be and indeed she was a feisty madam full of energy.
one change which occurs to us is that we have more recently been having pheasants and partridges helping themselves to the feed. Could they pass any virus over? They have looked very healthy but could this be a risk?
We haven't put down any pellets etc so it can't be that.
We are waiting to see if bashful gets sick. Dotty who died 3 weeks ago was never a good egg layer but strangely during April and May we had the most eggs ofI the whole 4 years. Ginger was a good layer and had stopped during the last 2 weeks. Horridly we have been away so we feel even worse.
Maybe it is worms and we are learning a tough lesson.
dinosaw
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Very sorry to hear your sad news. From what you say in your update I would be doubtful that it was worms if you have been doing them every 6 months. Flubenvet is the wormer of choice if that name rings a bell, verm x I may as well say is nigh on useless as a wormer. Wild birds are always a problem when they come into contact with chickens and can carry a number of viruses and parasites that cause problems and going forward you will need to keep them away as much as possible. You also say that you have been away as well, did the birds get sick while you were gone?.
Hi Daphne, very sorry to hear about Ginger. The best wormer for poultry is called can Flubenvet, the only one licensed for chickens which is available off prescription online, and has no egg withdrawal problems. They need it in their feed every 4 months or so. You can either buy a little tub of powder and add it to weighed pellets, or buy pre-medicated pellets and feed those. Maybe this was what you got from the poultry farm? Vermex is more of a herbal tonic which is supposed to help them become more resistant to worms, but it's ineffective in actually killing them.
At four years old, yours are no spring chickens any more, I'm afraid, and if they're hybrids who have always laid well they may be feeling their age a bit. But this doesn't account for the symptoms you describe. Purple comb can indicate a possible heart complaint, but hens affected usually just get inactive and one day you find them dead with no apparent symptoms otherwise. I would be concerned about the wild birds helping themselves to the feed - as you surmise, it's possible they're infecting the hens somehow. Maybe one if those dilemmas where free ranging is brilliant for the hens but has its downsides compared with confinement in a safe, messed run with a roof?
At four years old, yours are no spring chickens any more, I'm afraid, and if they're hybrids who have always laid well they may be feeling their age a bit. But this doesn't account for the symptoms you describe. Purple comb can indicate a possible heart complaint, but hens affected usually just get inactive and one day you find them dead with no apparent symptoms otherwise. I would be concerned about the wild birds helping themselves to the feed - as you surmise, it's possible they're infecting the hens somehow. Maybe one if those dilemmas where free ranging is brilliant for the hens but has its downsides compared with confinement in a safe, messed run with a roof?
Thank you very much for your kind responses. Our final girl is well and we are going to get some more to keep her company. We will try to keep the wild birds away and see what happens. We will make sure we use the wormer you recommend. Dotty was a bantam and never laid many eggs. We always thought she would get to an old age having never done a days work -so we told her.!! She never had a sick day and the was gone within 2 days. She died on the day we went away. Ginger died the day after we got back. They were two independent characters so I don't think they missed us!! My mother was looking after them so their routine was not changed.
Thank you for your help.
Thank you for your help.
Yes, like all layers pellets the premedicated has a use-by date which should be observed and may well have expired after 4-6 months when you need more. With fewer than 7-8 hens, (who could eat a 10-kilo bag of pretreated pellets in a week's course) it's better to use the powder as a pot will keep for up to 3 years and you can just mix as much as you want into their normal pellets, with no waste. It's easy to do, though of course with a bigger flock the premix saves time.
Not sure whether you've found your way to the main Poultrykeeper website, (see link at bottom of page) but it's a mine of information and this article about worming may help
http://poultrykeeper.com/general-chickens/worming-chickens
Also, now you're down to just one girl and are intending to get her some company, maybe you might be unsure how to go about introducing them. Adding chickens to a flock is always tricky as the established birds will fight with newcomers, and this goes for even one bird like yours. Even if obviously lonely and missing their flock, they hate introductions. Do ask if unsure, there are ways to ease the pain!
Not sure whether you've found your way to the main Poultrykeeper website, (see link at bottom of page) but it's a mine of information and this article about worming may help
http://poultrykeeper.com/general-chickens/worming-chickens
Also, now you're down to just one girl and are intending to get her some company, maybe you might be unsure how to go about introducing them. Adding chickens to a flock is always tricky as the established birds will fight with newcomers, and this goes for even one bird like yours. Even if obviously lonely and missing their flock, they hate introductions. Do ask if unsure, there are ways to ease the pain!
