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.