Does anyone know if Datura are harmful to hens? I was planning on
getting my sister one as a present but she keeps hens. She'd probably
manage to keep the birds away from it but one might get through.

I'm not sure I like the idea of a flock of wildly hallucinating hens
all frothing at the beak.

Are there any other plants to avoid? Apart from Henbane.

Ta for any advice,

Andy

Thats a good question. What is harmful to hens??

Rosie.

"Andy" wrote in message
...

Does anyone know if Datura are harmful to hens? I was planning on
getting my sister one as a present but she keeps hens. She'd probably
manage to keep the birds away from it but one might get through.

I'm not sure I like the idea of a flock of wildly hallucinating hens
all frothing at the beak.

Are there any other plants to avoid? Apart from Henbane.

Ta for any advice,

Andy

"Kelrosie" wrote in message
...
Thats a good question. What is harmful to hens??

Rosie.

"Andy" wrote in message
...

Does anyone know if Datura are harmful to hens? I was planning on
getting my sister one as a present but she keeps hens. She'd probably
manage to keep the birds away from it but one might get through.

I'm not sure I like the idea of a flock of wildly hallucinating hens
all frothing at the beak.

Are there any other plants to avoid? Apart from Henbane.

in general chickens are pretty smart as to what they eat in terms of
vegetation
They are normally more interested in bugs and grubs and seed like things
than stripping green stuff
- remember this was qualitied with the word normally
a selection of those that get the freedom of the garden around here [ a
dozen out of the 700 or so] took aliking to Mum's lilies last year :~(((( -
they were not popular
But in general as long as they have plenty of what they need - ad lib layers
feed; open pasture type ground to scratch - preferably mature shrubs and
trees to investigate under they are not prone to eating poisonous plants
Putrified rodents; rotting compost; slug pellets and occasionally each other
etc - well thats a different matter :~))))
They are definately much more carnivorous than herbivorous given the choice

--
Jill Bowis

http://www.poultryscotland.co.uk http://www.henhouses.co.uk
http://www.domesticducks.co.uk http://www.poultry-books.co.uk
http://www.kintaline.co.uk/cottage

Ta for any advice,

Andy

Kelrosie wrote:

Thats a good question. What is harmful to hens??

They seem pretty sensible about what they eat. Ours live in a pen with a
huge yew tree and never seem to have any bother at all with the berries.
They enjoy scratching around under it and roost in it during summer too.

ISTR the flesh of the yew berry is fine but the seed and plant material is
potentially deadly.

"Andy" wrote in message
...

Does anyone know if Datura are harmful to hens? I was planning on
getting my sister one as a present but she keeps hens. She'd probably
manage to keep the birds away from it but one might get through.

I doubt they would find the live plant attractive enough to eat - it smells
horrid when bruised. The flowers smell exquisite. The seeds could be a
problem though. But you can always cut off the seed heads to prolong
flowering. The fallen seeds make pretty good natural rodent bait so I would
not want my hens to try eating them.

LD50 cannot be very much. Not sure if it affects birds the same way as
mammals though.

Regards,
Martin Brown

In article ,
Martin Brown writes:
| Kelrosie wrote:
|
| Thats a good question. What is harmful to hens??
|
| They seem pretty sensible about what they eat. Ours live in a pen with a
| huge yew tree and never seem to have any bother at all with the berries.
| They enjoy scratching around under it and roost in it during summer too.
|
| ISTR the flesh of the yew berry is fine but the seed and plant material is
| potentially deadly.

That is correct.

In the tropics, hens scratch around Datura (and I mean stramonium)
all the time. I never heard of any eating it - but, yes, it would
kill them. I wouldn't take any notice of the hysterical articles
you see in the press, as the typical garden contains dozens of
poisonous plants, and unfortunate incidents due to them are very
rare indeed.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.