Are Azaleas and Rhododendrons poisonous to chickens?

[andy5898]

I'm about to pull out the flowers as the rabbits have eaten them despite me threatening them they will be returned to the rescue if they don't stop and the cats have dug up me flowers as they felt it was a big litter tray.

So I was thinking of putting in Rhododendrons and Azaleas as I thought they would be shrubs and it would mean the chickens when they move in (2 weeks now getting excited) have somewhere to go under and have a general look. I just wanted to check though that they weren't poisonous to hens? Any advice on what other shrubs to put them in to make it a more fun environment for the chickens welcome.

Cheers

[lancashire lass]

This website lists the common garden plants toxic to chickens

[AnnieG]

I have Rhododendron, boxwood, foxglove and Honeysuckle in my garden but they don't go near them. I will fence them off now though.

[andy5898]

So what other sort of shrub things would others put instead? I just wanted to plant shrubs so they had places to go and look under and relax in the sun.

[kitla]

My chooks favourite shrubs in my garden are the Choisya (mex orange blossom)
and a weeping pear tree - it's a very small,bushy tree, more like a large shrub.

AnnieG I also have a few iffy plants that my chickens don't touch including a couple
of foxgloves, last year I read that a chicken could have a heart attack from eating
foxglove seeds! I don't know if that's true but it wasn't a risk I wanted to take so
they had to go!

[chookmike]

I may well be wrong but I have an

idea that the heart related drug digitalis was discovered from Foxgloves. May well be wrong. Should have googled it first. Will do so now.

Especially as this machine is playing silly so and so's again.

Mike

[chookmike]

Yes, the compound was marketed as 'Digoxin' for control of heart rate but fell out of favour due to increased female mortality and newer dr-ugs.

Cheers

[stace]

I have lots of both plants in my garden, they have never tried to eat them not sure how dangerous they are to them, but i think they know what to stay away from They do love Bizzie lizzy's though

[HazellB]

Hazel's a great shrub for hens if you have space. Mine run has a hedge of it and the hens love the stuff. They eat the lower leaves so it looks neat, it offers nice shade, it's drying for the soil and has spreading roots near the surface, so makes a brilliant dust bath that doesn't wash away in hard rain and finally it attracts lots of insects for the hens to hunt.

We bend whippy branches down to the floor for the hens to eat leaves from, but if we let go the hens get launched. I'm strongly considering constructing a safety net ......