<\/span><\/h2>\nI’m happy to report that my backyard bunch gobbled up those foraged ferns I brought home with gusto! They clearly enjoyed the earthy, veggie taste as a supplement to their regular feed and suffered no ill effects.<\/p>\n
However, I’ll be sticking to small amounts doled out only occasionally. Variety is the spice of life, but safety first!<\/p>\n
The day after my initial impromptu taste test, I kept a close eye on my five hens to monitor their health. Sparkle, my top hen, was her usual lively self, eagerly awaiting treats when I came out to the run.<\/p>\n
Dottie and Flora had no change in appetite or egg production.<\/p>\n
My two Amberlinks, Ginger and Saffron, did seem a bit sluggish at first but perked up after an hour or two.<\/p>\n
Overall, the ferns I foraged seemed perfectly safe for my flock. But I’ll be making absolutely sure I correctly identify any new fern varieties before harvesting more to feed the ladies. Don’t want to chance stumbling upon some toxic bracken lurking in the woods!<\/p>\n
I’ll also be sure to introduce any new finds slowly and limit foraged ferns to the occasional treat.<\/p>\n
A handful of chopped up lady ferns here and there will add nice variety without disrupting the layer feed regimen that keeps my chickens happy and healthy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tanner here with the down and dirty on whether chickens can eat ferns. As a backyard chicken keeper always looking to supplement my flock’s diet with yummy treats from nature, I’ve done my fair share of research on this topic. And let me tell you, the answer may surprise you! See, a while back I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chickenrise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chickenrise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chickenrise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chickenrise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chickenrise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/chickenrise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1225,"href":"https:\/\/chickenrise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions\/1225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chickenrise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chickenrise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chickenrise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chickenrise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}