The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Goats => Topic started by: ScotsGirl on July 07, 2015, 02:34:23 pm

Title: Broad bean shells
Post by: ScotsGirl on July 07, 2015, 02:34:23 pm
i seem to recall reading somewhere that broad beans/their shells are not goo for goats. Is this correct or did I imagine it? Neighbour has given me some but haven't fed them yet.
Title: Re: Broad bean shells
Post by: Cosmore on July 07, 2015, 04:12:44 pm
Never tried broad beans or shells, I've not heard that they are no good for goats. I had a neighbour who always grew too many runner beans, when they 'got away' from him he used to give me loads whole which the goats relished! At the end of the season he pulled up and gave me the runner bean plants and I threw the huge bundle into the goats paddock, the goats cleared the lot in quick order!
The only thing I didn't feed them was Brussels Sprouts, they taint the milk terribly!
Title: Re: Broad bean shells
Post by: Melmarsh on July 07, 2015, 11:01:39 pm
I never tried broad beans but mine loved pea pods and relished pea hulm when the peas finished ???? :sunshine:
Title: Re: Broad bean shells
Post by: Lesley Silvester on July 08, 2015, 12:06:38 am
Mine love pea and bean pods and leaves. I can't see that broad beans would be different.
Title: Re: Broad bean shells
Post by: Dogwalker on July 09, 2015, 12:55:30 pm
A friend always saves her broad bean pods for the goats.
Most like them, some don't, no harm has come to any of them.
Title: Re: Broad bean shells
Post by: ScotsGirl on July 09, 2015, 04:30:20 pm
Possibly. And it may not be goats, it may be pigs I heard about. I just remember someone chucking some in the field last year and neither pigs or goats would look at them.
Title: Re: Broad bean shells
Post by: Dogwalker on July 09, 2015, 10:40:44 pm
Isn't the toxin just in the beans not the pods.

Title: Re: Broad bean shells
Post by: ladyK on July 10, 2015, 10:55:33 pm
I know that if you don't boil them properly they (and many other types of beans) are poisonous to humans, horses and dogs, but I didn't think it was a problem for ruminants.

Gosh, I had no idea. I just ate a big pile of freshly picked broad beans two days ago, raw, as I was shelling them. I have to say I didn't notice any adverse effects.  (The pigs were not too impressed by the shells though)