Smallholders Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: and now they eat...  (Read 961 times)

northfifeduckling

  • Joined Jan 2009
  • Fife
    • North Fife Blog
and now they eat...
« on: May 06, 2013, 03:54:46 pm »
my rhubarb leaves! All the previous years they left it well alone...isn't all the acid bad for them?  ::) :chook:

in the hills

  • Joined Feb 2012
Re: and now they eat...
« Reply #1 on: May 06, 2013, 08:33:23 pm »
I thought they were poisonous and was horrified one spring to look out and see that all the leaves had been gobbled in a couple of hours. In previous years, the hens had not touched them. Expected the hens to all pop their clogs but they were fine.


Read at a later date (but I don't remember where) that hens would eat rhubarb at certain times of the year in order to self-medicate and that they were probably a natural wormer.

goosepimple

  • Joined May 2010
  • nr Lauder, Scottish Borders
Re: and now they eat...
« Reply #2 on: May 06, 2013, 08:40:32 pm »
think all animals will be munching anything green they can get their teeth on this year, I know my goats and sheep are going mad for any branches I give them just now - best everyone stays a bit more vigilant than usual I think.  ;)
registered soay, castlemilk moorit  and north ronaldsay sheep, pygmy goats, steinbacher geese, muscovy ducks, various hens, lots of visiting mallards, a naughty border collie, a puss and a couple of guinea pigs

 

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