Martin Brown wrote:
In message ,[...]
Birds can more or less safely eat yew berries - there was a huge
tree
in our hen pen and despite the toxicity it never seemed to bother
them.

Yew berries are different. The flesh isn't as poisonous as the rest
of the plant: it's not a good idea, but you can even eat one yourself
without coming to any harm if you take care not to swallow the deadly
seed (I've done it: the flesh is sweet and slimy). The seed is as
toxic as the other parts of the tree. Possibly it's less toxic to
birds (my HMSO book on poisonous plants annoyingly doesn't mention
its effect on poultry), or maybe a bird is safe if its digestive
system doesn't break into the seed, and it's voided intact at the end
of the process. Given that chicken have seed-eating digestions, that
surprises me a bit.

Mike.